Speaker
Fabian Haas
(Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg)
Description
The paper studies the effect of natural disasters on the introduction of religious laws using a unique dataset on Sharia laws in the largest Muslim country – Indonesia. We find that districts in proximity to a natural disaster are 37 percent more likely to introduce Sharia law in the following year, and the effect persists over the following years. Testing for the mechanism, we use a longitude survey to show that natural disasters are associated with higher self-reported religiosity and frequency of praying in areas closer to the natural disasters. This is the first study to link natural disasters and religiosity to the institutionalization of religious laws.
Primary authors
Fabian Haas
(Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg)
Dr
Gerrit Gonschorek
(Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg)
Prof.
Günther G. Schulze
(Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg)
Dr
Nikita Zakharov
(Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg)
