Financial risk-taking, religiosity and denomination heterogeneity

We document a relationship between religiosity and financial risk-taking using geographical variation in Europe. We find that more religious households engage in less risk-taking, and the effect is more pronounced where Protestantism is more widespread than Catholicism. These results suggest that the content of religious doctrines rather than religiosity per se shape risk taking. We confirm these results using an alternative European survey, evidence from China, and a lab experiment.