Religion and Innovation

18 Pages Posted: 1 Apr 2015

See all articles by Roland Bénabou

Roland Bénabou

Princeton University - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Davide Ticchi

Marche Polytechnic University; affiliation not provided to SSRN

Andrea Vindigni

IMT Institute for Advanced Studies; University of Turin - Collegio Carlo Alberto

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 2015

Abstract

In earlier work (Bénabou, Ticchi and Vindigni 2013) we uncovered a robust negative association between religiosity and patents per capita, holding across countries as well as US states, with and without controls. In this paper we turn to the individual level, examining the relationship between religiosity and a broad set of pro- or anti-innovation attitudes in all five waves of the World Values Survey (1980 to 2005). We thus relate eleven indicators of individual openness to innovation, broadly defined (e.g., attitudes toward science and technology, new versus old ideas, change, risk taking, personal agency, imagination and independence in children) to five different measures of religiosity, including beliefs and attendance. We control for all standard socio-demographics as well as country, year and denomination fixed effects. Across the fifty-two estimated specifications, greater religiosity is almost uniformly and very significantly associated to less favorable views of innovation.

Keywords: attitudes, beliefs, creativity, culture, dogma, growth, ideas, innovation, religion, risk-taking, science, technical progress, tolerance, values

JEL Classification: D83, O31, O35, O43, Z1, Z12

Suggested Citation

Bénabou, Roland and Ticchi, Davide and Vindigni, Andrea, Religion and Innovation (March 2015). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10518, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2588421

Roland Bénabou (Contact Author)

Princeton University - Department of Economics ( email )

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Davide Ticchi

Marche Polytechnic University ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://works.bepress.com/davideticchi/

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Andrea Vindigni

IMT Institute for Advanced Studies ( email )

Complesso San Micheletto
Lucca, 55100
Italy

University of Turin - Collegio Carlo Alberto ( email )

via Real Collegio 30
Moncalieri, Torino 10024
Italy

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