From “Thou Shalt Not Increase GDP,”an article in this past Sunday’s NY Times, by Daniel Gross:
[Two Harvard professors found that] countries’ economies may perform best when people have relatively higher levels of religious belief than religious participation. Among the nations falling into this category are Japan, South Korea, Singapore and some Scandinavian countries – all of which performed well economically in the period studied. Countries in which belief was low compared with religious participation included India and many in Latin America.
Another finding was that belief in hell proved to be a more significant economic factor than belief in heaven. “The stick of punishment may be more powerful compared with the carrot,” Professor Barro said.
While noting that “we need a lot more and better data before we can be confident about the results” of such studies, Professor Iannaccone says economists should pay more attention to the intersection of religion and economics. “It’s almost impossible to live in the 21st century and look around and say that religion has no impact anymore,” he said.
(Emphasis added.)
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