Religiosity as a determinant of happiness

Erich Gundlach and Matthias Opfinger

Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) from Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät

Abstract: We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes an increase in happiness along with a decline of religiosity. Our interpretation of the empirical results is that the indifference curves for religiosity and other commodities of the utility function are hump-shaped.

Keywords: Happiness; religiosity; utility function; long-run development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 O11 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2011-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://diskussionspapiere.wiwi.uni-hannover.de/pdf_bib/dp-467.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Religiosity as a determinant of happiness (2012)
Working Paper: Religiosity as a determinant of happiness (2011)
Working Paper: Religiosity as a determinant of happiness (2011)
Working Paper: Religiosity as a determinant of happiness (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-467

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