cruithne
07-28-2004, 04:53 PM
HEADLINE: Prosperity: It's heaven on Earth;
The devil makes us honest, St. Louis Fed suggests.
BYLINE: By Alister Bull; Reuters
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Economists searching for reasons that some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Researchers at the regional Federal Reserve bank acknowledged the importance of productivity and investment in the economic process but looked at some recent unconventional efforts to explain differences in national prosperity.
The St. Louis Fed drew on work by outside economists who studied 35 countries, including the United States, European nations, Japan, India and Turkey, and found that religion shed some useful light.
"In countries where large percentages of the population believe in hell, there seems to be less corruption and a higher standard of living," the St. Louis Fed said in its July quarterly review.
For instance, 71 percent of the U.S. population believes in hell, and the country boasts the world's highest per-capita income, according to the 2003 United Nations Human Development Report and 1990-1993 World Values Survey.
Ireland, not far behind the United States in terms of income, likewise has a healthy fear of a netherworld, with 53 percent of the population acknowledging hell's existence.
"I'm not surprised," the Rev. Eileen Lindner, deputy general secretary of the U.S. National Council of Churches, said when told of the results.
"The expectation that there is a cultural belief in hell or perpetual and eternal punishment for wrongdoing will act as a disincentive to wrongdoing," she said.
The St. Louis Fed's researchers took a two-step approach to linking religion and the economy.
"A belief in hell tends to mean less corruption, and less corruption tends to mean a higher per-capita income," they wrote. It correlated the belief-in-hell findings of the World Value Survey with a measure of corruption produced by Transparency International, a nonprofit group that works to fight corruption.
It then looked at the relationship between corruption and per-capita gross domestic product and found "a strong tendency for countries with relatively low levels of corruption to have relatively high levels of per-capita GDP."
The researchers also noted the long tradition among classical economists to equate a society's honesty, and the strength of the rule of law, with economic vitality.
"Adam Smith wrote that one of religion's most important contributions to the economic-development process is its value as a moral enforcement mechanism," they said.
None of which cut any ice with nonbelievers.
Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists Inc., called the study the latest gimmick from the religious establishment to drum up government support.
"Religious people cannot rely on their theology to promote what they do, so they turn to other things," she said.
The St. Louis Fed's essay "Fear of Hell Might Fire Up the Economy" can be found at http://www.stlouisfed.org/publicati.../c/default.html
I don't think belief in Hell has much to do with prosperity. Many people "prosper" because of criminal or unethical activity--Saddam Hussein certainly had a tad more prosperity than he deserved, before the war. And by the reasoning of the authors, Latin American countries should have as much prosperity as the US.
The devil makes us honest, St. Louis Fed suggests.
BYLINE: By Alister Bull; Reuters
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Economists searching for reasons that some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Researchers at the regional Federal Reserve bank acknowledged the importance of productivity and investment in the economic process but looked at some recent unconventional efforts to explain differences in national prosperity.
The St. Louis Fed drew on work by outside economists who studied 35 countries, including the United States, European nations, Japan, India and Turkey, and found that religion shed some useful light.
"In countries where large percentages of the population believe in hell, there seems to be less corruption and a higher standard of living," the St. Louis Fed said in its July quarterly review.
For instance, 71 percent of the U.S. population believes in hell, and the country boasts the world's highest per-capita income, according to the 2003 United Nations Human Development Report and 1990-1993 World Values Survey.
Ireland, not far behind the United States in terms of income, likewise has a healthy fear of a netherworld, with 53 percent of the population acknowledging hell's existence.
"I'm not surprised," the Rev. Eileen Lindner, deputy general secretary of the U.S. National Council of Churches, said when told of the results.
"The expectation that there is a cultural belief in hell or perpetual and eternal punishment for wrongdoing will act as a disincentive to wrongdoing," she said.
The St. Louis Fed's researchers took a two-step approach to linking religion and the economy.
"A belief in hell tends to mean less corruption, and less corruption tends to mean a higher per-capita income," they wrote. It correlated the belief-in-hell findings of the World Value Survey with a measure of corruption produced by Transparency International, a nonprofit group that works to fight corruption.
It then looked at the relationship between corruption and per-capita gross domestic product and found "a strong tendency for countries with relatively low levels of corruption to have relatively high levels of per-capita GDP."
The researchers also noted the long tradition among classical economists to equate a society's honesty, and the strength of the rule of law, with economic vitality.
"Adam Smith wrote that one of religion's most important contributions to the economic-development process is its value as a moral enforcement mechanism," they said.
None of which cut any ice with nonbelievers.
Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists Inc., called the study the latest gimmick from the religious establishment to drum up government support.
"Religious people cannot rely on their theology to promote what they do, so they turn to other things," she said.
The St. Louis Fed's essay "Fear of Hell Might Fire Up the Economy" can be found at http://www.stlouisfed.org/publicati.../c/default.html
I don't think belief in Hell has much to do with prosperity. Many people "prosper" because of criminal or unethical activity--Saddam Hussein certainly had a tad more prosperity than he deserved, before the war. And by the reasoning of the authors, Latin American countries should have as much prosperity as the US.