Economic Growth and Religious Beliefs

Cole, Ohanian, Riascos & Schmitz (2005), in an attempt to attribute Latin America's long-run economic performance to something besides culture, argued that when considering ethnic, language, and religion, "... Latin America is a Western region." Thus, it was reasonable to compare Latin America to a peer group of other Western market economies, and by holding culture constant, Cole et al. (2005) were presumably able to attribute differences in long-run economic performance to something besides culture. The goal of my research was to determine if there was a difference in patterns of economic growth in the peer group of twenty-two nations and the twelve 'Western' nations of Latin America, utilized by Cole et al. (2005), when controlled by major Western religion. The literature made a strong case that there are significant differences between the Protestant and the Catholic expressions of the Christian faith, and importantly, that these theological differences should have made a temporal difference. I argued that not all Western religions were the same in that (eternal) religious beliefs should have made an (temporal) economic difference.

Autorentext

Dr. Vander Plaats, CPA, CMA holds degrees in accounting (BA, Dordt College) and finance (MBA, Univ. of Iowa and DBA, Anderson Univ.). He is ecstatically married to the sweetheart of his youth, Jean, and together they have ten children, five biological and five adopted. Gal. 4:5. He teaches finance and accounting at Geneva College in Beaver Falls.

Klappentext

Cole, Ohanian, Riascos & Schmitz (2005), in an attempt to attribute Latin Americäs long-run economic performance to something besides culture, argued that when considering ethnic, language, and religion, Latin America is a Western region. Thus, it was reasonable to compare Latin America to a peer group of other Western market economies, and by holding culture constant, Cole et al. (2005) were presumably able to attribute differences in long-run economic performance to something besides culture. The goal of my research was to determine if there was a difference in patterns of economic growth in the peer group of twenty-two nations and the twelve Western nations of Latin America, utilized by Cole et al. (2005), when controlled by major Western religion. The literature made a strong case that there are significant differences between the Protestant and the Catholic expressions of the Christian faith, and importantly, that these theological differences should have made a temporal difference. I argued that not all Western religions were the same in that (eternal) religious beliefs should have made an (temporal) economic difference.