ISLAM AND POLITICAL ECONOMY A Study of the Influence of Religiosity and Religiously Motivated Attitudes on Macroeconomic Performance in Countries with Substantial Muslim Presence

Arif, Shawky (2013) ISLAM AND POLITICAL ECONOMY A Study of the Influence of Religiosity and Religiously Motivated Attitudes on Macroeconomic Performance in Countries with Substantial Muslim Presence. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis consists of three empirical chapters studying the relationship be-
tween religion and political economy for a sample of countries with substantial
Muslim presence.
Chapter one is a study of the relationship between religiously motivated at-
titudes and FDI for a panel of predominantly Muslim countries over a period of
ten years stretching from 1997 to 2006. Instrumenting for the attitude variables,
I �nd that countries with more progressive attitudes towards women and higher
levels of openness towards foreigners tend to be more attractive to FDI.
Chapter two examines the relationship between Islam and economic growth for
a panel of countries with substantial Muslim presence over the period 1990-2008.
Using instrumental variables, I show that higher levels of religiosity, measured by
belief and attendance, depress economic growth.
Following up on the �ndings of chapters two and three, in chapter three I inves-
tigate how di�erent patterns of religious behaviour map onto economically relevant
attitudes for a sample of individuals from predominantly Muslim countries. The
empirical �ndings suggest that religiosity in predominantly Muslim countries is
associated with conservative attitudes towards women, and intolerance towards
strangers. On the other hand, religiosity is found to be associated with con�dence
in state institutions, the respect of law, and pro-market attitudes. Testing for the
in
uence of September 11 on religiosity, I �nd that Muslims after 2001 are more
religious.
In this thesis I �nd that religion negatively in
uences FDI by encouraging
conservative attitudes towards women and intolerance towards foreigners. These
attitudes are also plausible channels through which the negative in
uence of reli-
gion on economic growth works. I also �nd that the pro-market attitudes produced
by religion are another plausible channel through which the negative in
uence of
religion works. Finally, the increase in religiosity after the September 11 attacks,
ceteris paribus, could plausibly mean that the negative in
uence of religiosity in
countries with substantial Muslim presence on economic performance would in-
crease.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
Depositing User:	Users 2259 not found.
Date Deposited:	09 Apr 2014 10:38
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2014 10:41
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/48392
DOI:

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