The contributions of religious life to economic prosperity are increasingly evident, prompting many to study the relationship between the two. A recent study from Canada found that religion adds billions to the economy. In the United States, research has shown much of the same, pointing to growth that outsizes that of the world’s leading companies.
What’s less explored are connections between the underlying freedoms themselves, which many believe to be mutually reinforcing and indivisible.
“Both economic and religious freedom tend to exist together in the same societies,” writes Jay Richards in Acton’s collection of essays, “One and Indivisible.” “They are both based on the same principles; they tend to reinforce each other; and over the long haul, they arguably stand or fall together. As a result, when Catholics and other Christians surrender economic freedom, they unwittingly surrender their religious freedom, as well.
In a new research paper, “Religious, Civil, and Economic Freedoms: What’s the Chicken and What’s the Egg?”, Christos Makridis of Stanford University goes a bit further down this path, exploring “whether religious freedom is the driver of economic freedom – or whether it is the other way around.”
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