The Impact of Religion on Corruption

Abstract

Religion can influence human behavior and actions. One of the social behaviors is corruption which is important due to its effect on growth, inflation, investment and innovation and is rejected by all religions. The effect of religion on corruption has been investigated in this study. It is not the first time this issue is being investigated, but we can see certain paradoxes about it in some studies. Some of them show that religion as a cultural index has a positive effect on corruption and some others show that this effect is negative. This study uses data of 174 countries in 2010 and all of the economic and non-economic control variables were considered in its cross-sectional estimations. Although in some previous studies, religion was a factor in increasing corruption, this study shows that Islam and Christianity have no significant effect on corruption. Also, the robustness test strongly confirmed the results of the study. So, all the results showed that religion does not increase corruption.