A popular view is that economics is about inflation, unemployment, prices, and quantities, but not about religion or culture. And surely, soft factors such as religion do not matter for economic outcomes, do they? Not surprisingly, students of economics would not typically come across these in their lectures on microeconomics, macroeconomics, or econometrics. When economic issues are debated in the media, they do not feature highly either.

But religion matters for economics and vice versa. This talk will illustrate several ways in which religion still influences today’s economy and society, either directly or indirectly.