Suchergebnisse

In this note we take a first look at how the UK born identify across different dimensions (ethnicity, religion, political beliefs and region), to what extent the strength of attachment across these prescribed and elective identities strengthen or substitute each other and how these associations vary by ethnic and ethno-religious groups. For this analysis we make use of the new identity measures in the second wave of the UK longitudinal household survey, Understanding Society. We find that ethnic minorities report stronger religious and ethnic identities than the majority, political beliefs are stronger for those with stronger ethnic identity and both these are correlated with regional identities.

Religious Market Theory assigns basic market principles to the market for religion. The derived supply side model proposes that religiosity is higher on a competitive market, characterized by high religious diversity. Churches will provide higher quality goods compared to monopolistic churches. The demand side model, originating from the Secularization Hypothesis, suggests that the establishment of new churches casts doubt on the existing religion, which reduces overall religiosity. I find a negative linear relationship between religious diversity and religiosity which supports the demand side model. However, high levels of income, education, and democracy mitigate this effect. The relationship becomes positive in the most developed countries. The demand side model seems to dominate in less developed countries, while the supply side model better describes the market for religion after Secularization has occurred.

I study the political impact of the first populist radio personality in American history. Father Charles Coughlin blended populist demagoguery, anti-Semitism, and fascist sympathies to create a hugely popular radio program that attracted 30 million weekly listeners in the 1930s. I find that exposure to Father Coughlin's anti-Roosevelt broadcast reduced Franklin D. Roosevelt's vote share in the 1936 presidential election. Coughlin's effects were larger among Catholics and persisted after Coughlin left the air. Moreover, places more exposed to Coughlin's broadcast were more likely to form a local branch of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund and sold fewer war bonds during World War II. (JEL D72, L82, N32, N42, Z12)

This paper studies when religion can hamper diffusion of knowledge and economic development, and through which mechanism. I examine Catholicism in France during the Second Industrial Revolution (1870–1914). In this period, technology became skill-intensive, leading to the introduction of technical education in primary schools. I find that more religious locations had lower economic development after 1870. Schooling appears to be the key mechanism: more religious areas saw a slower adoption of the technical curriculum and a push for religious education. In turn, religious education was negatively associated with industrial development 10 to 15 years later, when schoolchildren entered the labor market. (JEL D83, I21, I26, N33, Z12)

We present evidence that cultural proximity (shared codes, beliefs, ethnicity) between lenders and borrowers increases the quantity of credit and reduces default. We identify in-group lending using dyadic data on religion and caste for officers and borrowers from an Indian bank, and a rotation policy that induces exogenous matching between them. Having an in-group officer increases credit access and loan size dispersion, reduces collateral requirements, and induces better repayment even after the in-group officer leaves. We consider a range of explanations and suggest that the findings are most easily explained by cultural proximity serving to mitigate information frictions in lending. (JEL D82, D83, G21, G28, O16, Z12, Z13)

Anthropologists have documented substantial and persistent differences in food preferences across social groups. My paper asks whether such food cultures can constrain caloric intake? I first document that interstate migrants within India consume fewer calories per rupee of food expenditure compared to their neighbors. Second, I show that migrants bring their origin-state food preferences with them. Third, I link these findings by showing that the gap in caloric intake between locals and migrants depends on the suitability and intensity of the migrants' origin-state preferences. The most affected migrants would consume seven percent more calories if they possessed their neighbors' preferences. (JEL D12, I12, O15, R23, Z12, Z13)

We provide a new compilation of data on ethnic, linguistic, and religious composition at the subnational level for a large number of countries. Using these data, we measure segregation of groups within the country. To overcome the endogeneity problem that arises because of mobility and endogenous internal borders, we construct an instrument for segregation. We find that more ethnically and linguistically segregated countries, i.e., those where groups live more spatially separately, have a lower quality of government; there is no relationship between religious segregation and governance. Trust is an important channel of influence; it is lower in more segregated countries. (JEL H11, H77, J15, O17, Z12, Z13)

This study examines why people initially give to charities, why they remain committed to the cause, and what factors attenuate these influences. Using an experimental design that links donations across distinct treatments separated in time, we present several results. For example, previous donors are more likely to give, and contribute more, than other donor types. Yet, how previous donors were acquired is critical: agents initially attracted by an economic mechanism are more likely to continue giving than agents attracted by a nonmechanism factor. From a methodological viewpoint, our study showcases the benefit of moving beyond an experimental design that focuses on short-run substitution effects. (JEL C93, D64, D82, H41, L31, Z12)

The relation between religion, economy and the country became a major topic in the development of public welfare systems. Humans are political creatures that have the potential to realise the level of moral conscience to meet the needs of a better life, but humans as spiritual beings must have a balance between religious morality and economic morality. With economic ethics are supported by religious morality, the welfare system can be realised systemically if the state, communities and individuals can realise the six-dimensional form: religious observance, good governance, justice, national security, the prosperity of society and the nation's vision. JEL Classification: B3, I3, N3, P5, Z12 ; Available at: 1. Journal of Economics Library: http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/JEL/article/view/838; 2. SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2807080; and 3. MPRA: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/74832.

Conventional economist, in particular neo-classical, assumes that self-interest is the guiding principle of economic behaviour and there exist no fallacies of composition. That is, whatever is in the interest of an individual is also in the interest of a society. Keynesian school of thought, on the other hand, though admits fallacies of composition such as "paradox of thrift" and "liquidity trap," but they believe that such anomalies can be resolved by appropriate government intervention. History has, however, shown that government intervention, on average, worsens the issues of an economy instead of resolving it. One such issue which could not be resolved through government intervention is of "interest." In this paper we investigate that why interest requires divine intervention for its prohibition. After explaining the economic rationale of prohibition of interest from Islamic perspective, we show through numerical illustration that how interest-based investment project, on one side, allows individual lenders to shift risk to borrowers and on the other side, generates a negative externality in the shape of financial and bankruptcy risk, which is an addition to the investment risk for the stakeholders of interest based investment. This might be one of the reasons that all divine religion including Islam give more weight to the societal or other stakeholders' interests than the interest of lenders only and prohibit interest based lending completely. We conclude that Islam not only admits the existence of fallacies of composition, as do Keynesian school of thought, but also takes steps to resolve such fallacies through divine rules.

This study examines the effect of formal institutions, specifically constitutional provi-sions, on minority discrimination in Muslim societies. We hypothesize that those Muslim countries in which (political) Islam constitutes an important constraint in the legislative process experience more discrimination against minorities than other (Muslim) coun-tries. In other words, as Islam becomes a constitutionally prescribed source of legisla-tion in Muslim societies, it is expected that subsequent laws will be more likely in viola-tion of basic rights of minorities. In our empirical analysis, we find that where the su-premacy of Islam and Shari'a is constitutionally entrenched, religious minorities are in-deed likely to face more discrimination. Instrumental variable regressions support our interpretation that this result reflects a causal effect of constitutional rules on social out-comes. We find no evidence that Islam encourages minority discrimination if it is not constitutionalized. Our results confirm the grave dangers entailed in the institutionaliza-tion of supreme values.

Usually, studies analyzing terrorism focus on the total number of casualties or attacks in a given county. However, per capita rates of terrorism are more likely to matter for individual welfare. Analyzing 214 countries from 1970 - 2014, we show that three stylized findings are overturned in terms of sign, magnitude, and statistical significance when investigating terror per capita. Democracy, previously associated with more casualties, emerges as a marginally negative predictor of terror per capita. A larger share of Muslims in society is, if anything, associated with less terrorism. Similar conclusions apply to language fractionalization.

Usually, studies analyzing terrorism focus on the total number of casualties or attacks in a given county. However, per capita rates of terrorism are more likely to matter for individual welfare. Analyzing 214 countries from 1970-2014, we show that three stylized findings are overturned in terms of sign, magnitude, and statistical significance when investigating terror per capita. Democracy, previously associated with more casualties, emerges as a marginally negative predictor of terror per capita. A larger share of Muslims in society is, if anything, associated with less terrorism. Similar conclusions apply to language fractionalization.

In this paper we analyze the characteristics of labor markets and female labor force in the countries from Central and Eastern Europe in order to verify the existence of significant differences in female labor participation rate among the countries that experienced the same political and economic system before 1990. The paper seeks to address the following specific objectives: 1) to identify the variables which are strongly correlated with female labor force participation, objective met using correlation analysis; 2) to define clusters of countries based on the determinants of female participation on the labor market, identified previously, using hierarchical cluster method; 3) to verify if the female labor force participation rate differs significantly among the identified clusters by applying the analysis of variance. The results of this study highlight that, in Central and Eastern Europe, we can identify four clusters of countries that share common characteristics of female labor market and female labor force. The analysis of the variation in female labor force participation rate emphasizes different patterns according to identified groups of countries.

This paper systematically analyzes media attention devoted to terrorist attacks worldwide between 1998 and 2012. Several aspects are related to predicting media attention. First, suicide missions receive significantly more coverage, which could explain their increased popularity among terrorist groups. This result is further supported by Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, suggesting that it is not the particular characteristics of suicide attacks (e.g., more casualties) that are driving heightened media attention. Second, less attention is devoted to attacks in countries located further away from the US. Third, acts of terror in countries governed by leftist administrations draw more coverage. However, this finding is not confirmed for suicide attacks conducted in countries ruled by leftist administrations. Fourth, the more a country trades with the US, the more media coverage an attack in that country receives. Finally, media attention of any terror attack is both predictive of the likelihood of another strike in the affected country within seven days' time and of a reduced interval until the next attack.