The Role of Religion in Economic Development

Abstract

The discourses on economic development is mostly focussed on role of natural resources, human resources etc in predicting the growth pattern. The noneconomic factors like religion have been considered as having indirect role in determining the economic development. This paper aims to analyses the role of religion in the economic development. The analysis has been done based on GDP per capita and consumption data and on the world values survey data on religious denomination. The religious denomination is used to decide the dominant religion in the country. It is found that religion has a negative impact on the economic development of a country because the religious practices acts as a hindrances in promoting economic activity.

Keywords: Economic Development, GDP per capita, World Values Survey