In this episode we chat with Davide Ticchi about his paper​ “Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy of Science, Religion, and Growth”. Davide and his co-authors study the coevolution of religion, science and politics and they find a negative relationship between religiosity and patents per capita. They categorized three different regimes and outcomes. Western-European Secularization regime has declining religiosity, unimpeded science, and high taxes and transfers. The Theocratic regime involves knowledge stagnation, unquestioned dogma, and high religious-public-goods spending. The American regime combines scientific progress and stable religiosity through doctrinal adaptations, with low taxes and some fiscal-legal advantages for religious activities.

Paper link: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20140832

Learn more about Davide: https://works.bepress.com/davideticchi/

Follow Growth Chat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Growth_Chat