TY - JOUR

T1 - An Empirical Note on Religiosity and Social Trust using German Survey Data

AU - Köbrich Leon, Anja

AU - Pfeifer, Christian

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - In this empirical research note, we use a large scale German household survey data set to analyze the correlation between religiosity and social trust. Religiosity takes into account religious affiliations (Catholic. Protestant, other Christian. Muslim Islam, other religions, none) and the frequency of church atendance. In order to measure social trust, we use three outcome variables (willingness to take risks in trusting strangers, frequency of lending personnel belongings or money to friends). Our main findings in multivariate linear and ordered Probit regressions are: (1) Muslims tend to be less trusting towards strangers and they less often lend personnel belongings but not money to friends than other religious groups and non affiliated persons. (2) Catholics and Protestants do not differ significantly from each other and tend to be more trusting towards strangers but not towards friends than other religious groups and non affiliated persons. (3) Church attendance seems to play only a minor role in the context our social trust measures.

AB - In this empirical research note, we use a large scale German household survey data set to analyze the correlation between religiosity and social trust. Religiosity takes into account religious affiliations (Catholic. Protestant, other Christian. Muslim Islam, other religions, none) and the frequency of church atendance. In order to measure social trust, we use three outcome variables (willingness to take risks in trusting strangers, frequency of lending personnel belongings or money to friends). Our main findings in multivariate linear and ordered Probit regressions are: (1) Muslims tend to be less trusting towards strangers and they less often lend personnel belongings but not money to friends than other religious groups and non affiliated persons. (2) Catholics and Protestants do not differ significantly from each other and tend to be more trusting towards strangers but not towards friends than other religious groups and non affiliated persons. (3) Church attendance seems to play only a minor role in the context our social trust measures.

KW - Gender and Diversity

KW - Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84883017452&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 33

SP - 753

EP - 763

JO - Economics Bulletin

JF - Economics Bulletin

SN - 1545-2921

IS - 1

ER -