Risk aversion and religion

C.N. Noussair, S.T. Trautmann, G. van de Kuilen, N. Vellekoop

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

128 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We use a dataset for a demographically representative sample of the Dutch population that contains a revealed preference risk attitude measure, as well as detailed information about participants’ religious background, to study three issues. First, we find strong confirmatory evidence that more religious people, as measured by church membership or attendance, are more risk averse with regard to financial risks. Second, we obtain some evidence that Protestants are more risk averse than Catholics in such tasks. Third, our data suggest that the link between risk aversion and religion is driven by social aspects of church membership, rather than by religious beliefs themselves.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)165-183
JournalJournal of Risk and Uncertainty
Volume47
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

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