The bicausal relation between religion and income

Leon Bettendorf (1) , Elbert Dijkgraaf (2)

1 Erasmus University Rotterdam
2 SEOR-ECRi

In this paper the relation between religion and income is investigated using a micro-dataset for the Netherlands. Religion is measured by religious membership and by participation. Instead of estimating a religion equation and an income equation separately, joint regression is preferred since this generally yields more efficient estimates. Following the single-equation approach, both religious measures are found to decrease income significantly and income is found to affect religion negatively. However, these cross-effects become insignificant once the equations are estimated simultaneously. In contrast, the effects of socio-economic characteristics on religion and income hardly differ between the approaches.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Leon Bettendorf, Elbert Dijkgraaf. The bicausal relation between religion and income. Applied Economics, 2009, pp.1. ⟨10.1080/00036840802600442⟩. ⟨hal-00582286⟩