LONDON — A new study published in May by RFBerlin argues that economists have been looking in the wrong places for the roots of economic growth. The paper, a review by professors Sascha Becker, Jared Rubin, and Ludger Woessmann, contends that religion has shaped development in ways standard economic models miss entirely. The researchers zero in on a specific historical case: the Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther argued that ordinary believers needed to read the Bible themselves. That theological position had a measurable consequence.
Schools were built across Protestant regions of Europe. By the 19th century, Protestant areas of Prussia showed significantly higher literacy rates than neighboring Catholic regions. That educational edge translated into stronger economic growth.
The finding directly challenges Max Weber’s famous theory, which tied Protestant prosperity to a unique work ethic. The new research suggests the mechanism was more concrete: literacy and schooling, not attitudes toward labor.
The study takes a broader view as well. It argues that religion has influenced financial systems, family size, technological innovation, and political institutions. These are the very factors economists typically credit for growth — investment, human capital, technology.
The paper’s central claim is that religion has often operated behind the scenes, shaping those factors. “Religion affects economic growth not just through individual beliefs, but by shaping the fundamental institutions and norms that govern society,” the study says. That line captures a shift in thinking.
Development economics has mostly treated religious factors as noise, not signal. The RFBerlin review suggests that noise might be the signal.
The three economists come from different institutions. Sascha Becker teaches at the University of Warwick. Jared Rubin is at Chapman University.
Ludger Woessmann is at the University of Munich. Their review synthesizes existing research into a coherent argument.
It does not present new data. It reinterprets what is already known. Conventional economics has largely overlooked the role of religion.
The standard story focuses on investment rates, technological progress, and education levels. Those are proximate causes. The RFBerlin paper asks what shaped those causes in the first place.
Its answer: religious institutions and the norms they created. The Protestant literacy example is the clearest.
Luther wanted believers to read Scripture. That required schools. Schools produced literate populations.
Literate populations adapted faster to economic change. The causal chain is direct.
It does not require any theory about a Protestant work ethic. The paper does not limit itself to Europe. It examines how religious institutions affected economic development across different regions and time periods.
The pattern holds. Where religion promoted education, stable institutions, and trust, growth followed. Where it discouraged those things, growth lagged.
This is not a narrow academic debate. It has implications for how development agencies and governments design policy.
If the deepest drivers of growth are cultural and institutional — shaped by religion — then simply pouring capital into a region may not work. The underlying norms have to be understood. The study challenges a long tradition in economics.
That tradition treated religion as a distraction from the real variables. The RFBerlin review argues the opposite.
Religion is one of the real variables. It has been there all along, hidden in plain sight.
