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The Impact of Religion and the Degree of Religiosity on Work Ethic: A Multilevel Analysis
Author(s) -
Feess Eberhard,
Mueller Helge,
Ruhnau Sabrina G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
kyklos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-6435
pISSN - 0023-5962
DOI - 10.1111/kykl.12065
Subject(s) - religiosity , work ethic , work (physics) , social psychology , protestant work ethic , per capita , test (biology) , world values survey , psychology , multilevel model , sociology , positive economics , economics , statistics , demography , mathematics , political science , law , biology , mechanical engineering , population , paleontology , politics , engineering , capitalism
Summary With data from the last available wave of the W orld V alues S urvey, we analyze the impact of different religions and the degree of religiosity on the work ethic of respondents. Following the theoretical literature, we predict that religiosity has a positive effect on work ethic for all religions (Hypothesis 1), that there is no significant difference in the work ethic of individuals from different religions (Hypothesis 2), and that the impact of religiosity on work ethic is lower for P rotestants than for C atholics (Hypothesis 3). Due to the data structure, we apply a M ultilevel R andom C oefficient M odel to test our hypotheses. While our data strongly support the first and the third hypothesis, the second hypothesis is only partially confirmed as Muslims report higher work ethic than individuals with other religions. We provide additional insights for the latter finding by disaggregating the data set by continents and levels of GDP per capita.