This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. Divine Policy: The Impact of Religion in Government

American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics

ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)

Divine Policy: The Impact of Religion in Government

  • Jeanet Sinding Bentzen
  • Alessandro Pizzigolotto
  • Lena Lindbjerg Sperling
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (Forthcoming)

Abstract

Can policies shape personal values and beliefs? To examine, we exploit the staggered introduction of the faith-based initiatives across US states. Our difference-in-differences analysis reveals that the initiatives strengthened religiosity and conservative-religious social views, such as attitudes against homosexuals. The evidence points to causal effects; we find no systematic differences prior to implementation, results are robust to restricting comparison to contiguous counties and to conducting triple-differences estimation exploiting treatment heterogeneity. A key explanation, in line with standard models of religion and supported by data on nonprofit organizations, is that the initiatives facilitated the establishment of faith-based organizations.

Downloads