Interplay between religious affinity and global socio-economic development.

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of religion on development using cross-sectional data from 108 countries, classified by daily prayer intensity into those with less than 50% (low) and those with more than 50% (high). Causal inference methods, namely propensity score matching and difference-in-differences, are employed to determine the impact of prayer intensity across these groups. The results indicate that a unit increase in variables such as continental effects, population growth rate, life expectancy, and the Gini index is associated with a reduction in GDP per capita of up to 6.32, while total factor productivity (TFP) may increase by up to 232.43. Individually, factors such as Global Innovation Index, labour force participation, Gini index, number of universities in the top 1000 (Top1000) and growth in GDP can reduce the propensity score of prayer intensity by up to 21.8% whereas, whereas collectively they can reduce the score by 8.6%. As changes occur, differences between countries widen, and prayer intensity does not provide any meaningful solution to the development challenge.