Socio-economic development, income differentiation and religious people: an empirical analysis of the relationship
Abstract
The paper studies issues related to the relationship between indicators of socio-economic development, income differentiation and religiosity of the population in the country. Based on the assumption that the religiosity of the population can be a factor that has a significant impact on socio-economic development and the inequality of income distribution in society, this hypothesis is tested using correlation and cluster analysis methods based on empirical analysis. The results of a) a correlation analysis of indicators of the inequality of the income distribution of the country, its socio-economic development and the level of religiosity of the population are presented; b) analysis of the relationship between the Gini coefficient and the number of believers; c) clustering of sample objects (countries) by indicators of socio-economic development, income distribution and religiosity of the population. The analysis was carried out on a sample of 75 countries and indicators: per capita GDP, human development index (HDI), income differentiation (Gini coefficient), the number of religious population (in %). The results confirm the existence of relationships between these indicators. It is revealed that the nature of the relationship between the socio-economic development of the country and the level of religiosity of the population is non-linear, which can be presented in a parabolic form. An analysis conducted by groups of countries by income level (High income, Upper middle income, Lower middle income, Low income) showed that the closest positive relationship between the Gini index and religiosity of the population is observed in the countries of Lower middle income. To describe the diversity of combinations of indicators of socio-economic development, income differentiation and religiosity of the population, a cluster analysis was carried out on the basis of all 4 indicators. 3 clusters of countries were identified, of which groups with opposite values of attributes: countries with a high level of religiosity and income distribution inequality and low development rates; countries with low rates of inequality and religiosity and high levels of development. The intermediate cluster has indicator values that are closer to the first group.
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