Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:40:40.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Effect of Religious Denomination on Wealth

Who Were the Truly Blessed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Livio Di Matteo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The wealth of probated decedents from late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century Ontario is analyzed for evidence of the impact of religious affiliation on the level of wealth and rate of wealth accumulation. After controlling for age, birthplace, occupation, gender, urbanization, and other factors, the results suggest that relative to Anglicans, the wealth of Methodists and Roman Catholics was significantly lower. Moreover, when religious denomination and birthplace are interacted, Canadian-born Anglicans emerge as the dominant wealth group, while the English-born of any denomination and Methodists of any birthplace seem to fare the worst. When wealthage profiles are examined by denomination, Baptists have the steepest profiles, followed by Anglicans and Presbyterians. The data do support the hypothesis that religious affiliation, particularly when interacted with birthplace, has an impact on wealth, though the exact nature of the mechanism is unclear.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , Fall 2007 , pp. 299 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2007 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Gary M. (1988) “Mr. Smith and the preachers: The economics of religion in the wealth of nations.” Journal of Political Economy 96: 1066–88.Google Scholar
Atack, Jeremy, and Bateman, Fred (1981) “Egalitarianism, inequality, and age: The rural North in 1860.” Journal of Economic History 41: 85–93.Google Scholar
Baskerville, Peter (1999) “Women and investment in late-nineteenth-century urban Canada: Victoria and Hamilton, 1880-1901.” Canadian Historical Review 80: 191–218.Google Scholar
Baskerville, Peter (2001) “Did religion matter? Religion and wealth in urban Canada at the turn of the twentieth century; An exploratory study.” Histoire sociale/Social History 67: 61–96.Google Scholar
Bourbeau, Robert, and Légaré, Jacques (1982) Evolution de la mortalité au Canada et au Quebec, 1831-1931. Montreal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal.Google Scholar
Brenner, Reuven, and Kiefer, Nicholas M. (1981) “The economics of diaspora: Discrimination and occupational structure.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 29: 517–33.Google Scholar
Chambers, Lori (1997) Married Women and the Law of Property in Victorian Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Conley, Timothy G., and Galenson, David W. (1998) “Nativity and wealth in mid-nineteenth-century cities.” Journal of Economic History 58: 468–93.Google Scholar
Darroch, A.Gordon (1983a) “Early industrialization and inequality in Toronto, 1861-1899.” Labour/Le travailleur 11: 31–61.Google Scholar
Darroch, Gordon A. (1983b) “Occupational structure, assessed wealth, and homeowning during Toronto's early industrialization, 1861-1899.” Histoire sociale/Social History 16: 381–410.Google Scholar
Darroch, A. Gordon, and Soltow, Lee (1994) Property and Inequality in Victorian Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Deininger, Klaus, and Squire, Lyn (1997) “Economic growth and income inequality: Reexamining the links.” Finance and Development 34: 38–41.Google Scholar
Deininger, Klaus, and Squire, Lyn (1998) “New ways of looking at old issues: Inequality and growth.” Journal of Development Economics 57: 259–87.Google Scholar
Delacroix, Jacques (1995) “Religion and economic action: The Protestant ethic, the rise of capitalism, and the abuses of scholarship.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 34: 126–27.Google Scholar
Di Matteo, Livio (1996) “The wealth of the Irish in nineteenth-century Ontario.” Social Science History 20: 209–34.Google Scholar
Di Matteo, Livio (1997) “The determinants of wealth and asset holding in nineteenth-century Canada: Evidence from microdata.” Journal of Economic History 57: 907–34.Google Scholar
Di Matteo, Livio (1998) “Wealth accumulation and the life-cycle in economic history: Implications of alternative approaches to data.” Explorations in Economic History 35: 296–324.Google Scholar
Di Matteo, Livio, and George, Peter J. (1992) “Canadian wealth inequality in the late nineteenth century: A study of Wentworth County, Ontario, 1872-1902.” Canadian Historical Review 73: 453–83.Google Scholar
Elliott, Bruce S. (1985) “Sources of bias in nineteenth-century Ontario wills.” Histoire sociale/Social History 18: 125–32.Google Scholar
Emery, George (1993) The Facts of Life: The Social Construction of Vital Statistics, Ontario, 1869-1952. Montreal: McGill-Queen's.Google Scholar
Engerman, Stanley (2000) “Review of Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” EH.Net Economic History Services, March 1, eh.net/bookreviews/library/engerman.Google Scholar
Ferrie, Joseph P. (1994) “The wealth accumulation of antebellum European immigrants to the U.S., 1840-60.” Journal of Economic History 54: 1–33.Google Scholar
Ferrie, Joseph P. (1995) “The entry into the U.S. labour market of antebellum European immigrants, 1840-1860.” Explorations in Economic History 34: 295–330.Google Scholar
Ferrie, Joseph P. (1999) Yankeys Now: Immigrants in the Antebellum United States, 1840–1860. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Frey, Donald (2001) “The Protestant ethic thesis.” EH.NetEncyclopedia, August 15, eh.net/encyclopedia/article/frey.protestant.ethic.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John K. (1985) The Scotch. Toronto: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Galenson, David W. (1991) “Economic opportunity on the urban frontier: Nativity, work, and wealth in early Chicago.” Journal of Economic History 51: 581–603.Google Scholar
Grant, John W. (1988) A Profusion of Spires: Religion in Nineteenth-Century Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Green, Alan G., and Urquhart, Malcolm C. (1987) “New estimates of output growth in Canada: Measurement and interpretation,” in McCalla, D. (ed.) Perspectives on Canadian Economic History. Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman: 182–99.Google Scholar
Gregson, Mary E. (1996) “Wealth accumulation and distribution in the Midwest in the late nineteenth century.” Explorations in Economic History 33: 524–38.Google Scholar
Guiso, Luigi, Sapienza, Paola, and Zingales, Luigi (2003) “People's opium? Religion and economic attitudes.” Journal of Monetary Economics 50: 225–82.Google Scholar
Haines, Michael R., and Goodman, Allen C. (1991) “A home of one's own: Aging and homeownership in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series on Historical Factors and Long-Run Growth 21.Google Scholar
Hardle, Wolfgang (1991) Applied Non-parametric Regression. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Herscovici, Stephen (1993) “The distribution of wealth in nineteenth-century Boston: Inequality among natives and immigrants, 1860.” Explorations in Economic History 30: 321–35.Google Scholar
Herscovici, Stephen (1998) “Migration and economic mobility: Wealth accumulation and occupational change among antebellum migrants and persisters.” Journal of Economic History 58: 927–56.Google Scholar
Higgins, Matthew, and Williamson, Jeffrey G. (1999) “Explaining inequality the world round: Cohort size, Kuznets curves, and openness.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 7224.Google Scholar
Houston, Cecil J., and Smyth, William J. (1980) The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography of the Orange Order in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Howell, Alfred (1880) The Law and Practice as to Probate, Administration, and Guardianship in Surrogate Courts. Toronto: Carswell.Google Scholar
Iannaccone, Laurence R. (1998) “Introduction to the economics of religion.” Journal of Economic Literature 36: 1465–96.Google Scholar
Ingram, Susan, and Inwood, Kris (2000) “The impact of married women's property legislation in Victorian Ontario.” Dalhousie Law Journal 23: 406–49.Google Scholar
Jianakoplos, Nancy A., Menchik, Paul L., and Irvine, F. Owen (1989) “Using panel data to assess the bias in cross-sectional inferences of life-cycle changes in the level and composition of household wealth,” in Lipsey, R. E. and Tice, H. S. (eds.) The Measurement of Saving, Investment, and Wealth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 553–644.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael (1975) The People of Hamilton, Canada West: Family and Class in a Mid-Nineteenth-Century City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Keister, Lisa A. (2003) “Religion and wealth: The role of religious affiliation and participation in early adult asset accumulation.” Social Forces 82: 175–207.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Paul (1993) A Guide to Econometrics. 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
King, Mervyn A. (1985) “The economics of saving: A survey of recent contributions,” in Arrow, K. J. and Honkapohja, S. (eds.) Frontiers in Economics. Oxford: Blackwell: 227–327.Google Scholar
Landes, David S. (1998) The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Lipford, Jody W., and Tollison, Robert D. (2003) “Religious participation and income.” Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization 51: 249–60.Google Scholar
Maddala, G. S. (1988) Introduction to Econometrics. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Magee, Lonnie, Robb, A. Les, and Burbidge, John B. (1998) “On the use of sampling weights when estimating regression models with survey data.” Journal of Econometrics 84: 251–71.Google Scholar
McCleary, Rachel M., and Barro, Robert J. (2006) “Religion and economy.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20: 49–72.Google Scholar
Meng, Ronald, and Sentence, Jim (1984) “Religion and the determination of earnings: Further results.” Canadian Journal of Economics 17: 481–88.Google Scholar
Modigliani, Franco (1988) “The role of intergenerational transfers and life cycle saving in the accumulation of wealth.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 2: 15–40.Google Scholar
Myers, Gustavus (1972 [1914]) A History of Canadian Wealth. 1st Canadian ed. Toronto: Lewis and Samuel.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, Valerie K. (1974) “The life cycle squeeze: The interaction of men's occupational and family life cycles.” Demography 11: 227–45.Google Scholar
Osborne, Brian S. (1980) “Wills and inventories: Records of life and death in a developing society.” Families 19: 235–47.Google Scholar
Perotti, Roberto (1996) “Growth, income distribution, and democracy: What the data say.” Journal of Economic Growth 1: 149–87.Google Scholar
Pope, Clayne L. (1989) “Household on the American frontier: The distribution of income and wealth in Utah, 1850-1900,” in Galenson, D. W. (ed.) Markets in History: Economic Studies of the Past. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press: 148–89.Google Scholar
Porter, John (1968 [1965]) The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Samuelsson, Kurt (1993) Religion and Economic Action: The Protestant Ethic, the Rise of Capitalism, and the Abuses of Scholarship. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Shorrocks, Anthony F. (1975) “The age-wealth relationship: A cross-section and cohort analysis.” Review of Economics and Statistics 57: 155–63.Google Scholar
Siddiq, Fazley K., and Gwyn, Julian (1991) “The importance of probate inventories in estimating the distribution of wealth.” Nova Scotia Historical Review 11: 103–17.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard H. (1990) “Poverty and prosperity: A longitudinal study of wealth accumulation, 1850-1860.” Review of Economics and Statistics 72: 275–85.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard H., and Moehling, Carolyn M. (2001) “Rising inequality: Trends in the distribution of wealth in industrializing New England.” Journal of Economic History 61: 160–83.Google Scholar
Stultz, Rene M., and Williamson, Rohan (2003) “Culture, openness, and finance.” Journal of Financial Economics 70: 313–49.Google Scholar
Tawney, Richard Henry (1926) Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Tomes, Nigel (1983) “Religion and the rate of return on human capital: Evidence from Canada.” Canadian Journal of Economics 16: 122–38.Google Scholar
Tomes, Nigel (1985) “Religion and the earnings function.” Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Review 75: 245–50.Google Scholar
Ullah, Aman (1988) “Non-parametric estimation of econometric functionals.” Canadian Journal of Economics 21: 625–58.Google Scholar
Urquhart, Malcolm C. (1986) “New estimates of gross national product, Canada 1870-1926: Some implications for Canadian development,” in Engerman, S. L. and Gallman, R. R. (eds.) Long-Term Factors in American Growth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 9–94.Google Scholar
Walker, Thomas R. (2000) “Economic opportunity on the urban frontier: Wealth and nativity in early San Francisco.” Explorations in Economic History 37: 258–77.Google Scholar
Weber, Max (1958 [1930]) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Tribune, Welland (1892) April 1.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey G. (1996) “Globalization and inequality then and now: The late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries compared.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 5491.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey G. (1998) “Growth, distribution, and demography: Some lessons from history.” Explorations in Economic History 35: 241–71.Google Scholar