http://repub.eur.nl/res/concept/jel-Z12/ Recent publications classified by JEL Code Z12 en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11080/ 2008-01-28T00:00:00Z This paper tests whether the behaviour of households in different countries is homogeneous with respect to the influence of religion on income. The violation of the homogeneity assumption would have two consequences. First, results based on country studies might not be applicable to other countries. Second, one should be careful when pooling cross-country data in this type of research. Data at household level of the European and World Values Survey are pooled for 25 Western countries. We estimate simultaneously an income and a religion equation to correct for the endogeneity of religiosity. We find that estimation outcomes are different between low and high-income countries. Whereas church membership is found to have a positive effect on income for high-income countries, this effect is negative for low-income countries. This result is robust to denominational distribution, participation effects and alternative measures of religiosity. Bettendorf, L.J.H. Dijkgraaf, E. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7233/ 2005-11-11T00:00:00Z In this paper the relation between religion and income is investigated using a micro-dataset for the Netherlands. Religiosity is measured by religious membership and by participation. Instead of estimating separately a religion and an income equation, joint regression is preferred since this generally yields more efficient estimates. Following the single equation approach, both religious measures are found to decrease significantly income and income is found to affect negatively religion. However, these cross-effects get insignificant once the equations are simultaneously estimated. In contrast, the effects of socio-economic characteristics on religion and income hardly differ between both approaches. Bettendorf, L.J.H. Dijkgraaf, E.