| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Anyone who has been in a Muslim country during Ramadan knows the transformation that comes about with the first sighting of the crescent moon. During the holy month, the devout fast from sunrise to sunset. Bustling thoroughfares go quiet; office hours are shorter to accommodate fasting employees; and business grinds to a halt, to the frustration of expats and foreign partners. Now, a new paper from two Harvard University researchers confirms what until now has only been a nagging suspicion: Religion isn't good for the economy. Economists Filipe Campante and David Yanagizawa-Drott examined data from every Ramadan since 1950, using the amount of time spent fasting as a measure for intensity of religious practice. Focusing on countries that were more than 75 percent Muslim, they found that when people spent more time fasting -- when Ramadan fell during the long days of summer, for instance -- it took a bigger toll on economic growth. Increasing the average daily fast in a country from 12 to 13 hours, for example, decreased GDP growth by about 0.7 percentage points, the authors found. More-intense religious ractice, in other words, left worshippers poorer. And being poorer makes you less happy, right?
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