Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of Religion And Religious Differences On Political And Economic Cooperation Between Countries, Betul Dicle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Studies on economic and political cooperation of countries generally focus on the effects of factors such as geographical proximity, political regime type, and the different fiscal and monetary policies, among others. The impact of religious affiliation, however, stayed mainly as theory. The clash between and/or within religions had important proponents. We provide evidence that religion can have economic union effects. We evaluate whether there is historic economic polarization and whether religions have group dynamics similar to economic unions. Economic convergence, causation and trade cooperation are commonly reported for economic unions. Do these effects exist for countries with the same religion? …