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Betting on the Lord: lotteries and religiosity in Haiti
- Source :
- World Development, World Development, Elsevier, 2021, 144, ⟨10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105441⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- National audience; We conducted an experimental study in Haiti testing for the relationship between religious belief and individual risk taking behavior. 774 subjects played lotteries in a standard neutral protocol and subsequently with reduced endowments but in the presence of religious images of Catholic, Protestant and Voodoo tradition. Subjects chose between paying to play a lottery with an image of their choice, and saving their money to play with no image. Those who chose the former are dened as image buyers and those who chose the latter as non-buyers. Image buyers, who tend to be less educated, more rural, and to exhibit greater religiosity, bet more than non-buyers in all games. In addition, in the presence of religious images all participants took more risk, and buyers took more risk when playing in the presence of their chosen images than when playing with other images. We develop a theoretical model calibrated with our experimental data to explore the channels through which religious images might a ect risk-taking. Our results suggest that the presence of images tends to increase individuals' subjective probability of winning the lottery, and that subjects therefore believe in a god who intervenes actively in the world in response to their requests.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
Sociology and Political Science
Geography, Planning and Development
JEL: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods/C.C9 - Design of Experiments/C.C9.C93 - Field Experiments
Development
Affect (psychology)
Individual risk
JEL: Z - Other Special Topics/Z.Z1 - Cultural Economics • Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology/Z.Z1.Z12 - Religion
Religiosity
Lottery
Risk preferences
Protestantism
0502 economics and business
Field Experiment
050207 economics
B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
050205 econometrics
05 social sciences
Religious belief
JEL: D - Microeconomics/D.D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty/D.D8.D81 - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
Building and Construction
[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance
Religion
Chose
Psychology
Social psychology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0305750X
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- World Development, World Development, Elsevier, 2021, 144, ⟨10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105441⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ff316ec3893f2dd559b1bc1303e0e573