Religion, income inequality, and the size of the government

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Elgin C., GÖKSEL T., Gurdal M. Y., Orman C.

Economic Modelling, cilt.30, sa.1, ss.225-234, 2013 (SSCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 30 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2013
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.econmod.2012.08.017
  • Dergi Adı: Economic Modelling
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.225-234
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Income inequality, Redistribution, Religion, Taxation, Voluntary donations
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Recent empirical research has demonstrated that countries with higher levels of religiosity are characterized by greater income inequality. We argue that this is due to the lower level of government services demanded in more religious countries. Religion motivates individuals to engage in charitable giving and this leads them to prefer making their contributions privately and voluntarily rather than through the state. To the extent that citizen preferences are reflected in policy outcomes, religiosity results in lower levels of taxes and hence lower levels of spending on both public goods and redistribution. Since measures of income typically do not fully take into account private transfers received, this increases measured income inequality. We formalize these ideas in a general equilibrium political economy model and also show that the implications of our model are supported by cross-country data. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.