Religious Participation: Does It Shape Food Consumption?

Abstract

As an informal system, religion has a profound effect on all facets of our society. In reality, previous studies have investigated the consequences of religion on education, health, and others. Consequently, the purpose of this article is to examine the impact of religious participation on food consumption in China. Using data from the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey for an empirical study, the findings suggest that religious participation reduces food consumption. In the meantime, replacement food consumption (food2) is used for the robustness test. The findings confirm the argument that religious participation reduces food consumption. Moreover, this article investigates the geographically heterogeneous impact of religious participation on food consumption. The findings suggest the geographically heterogeneous effect’s existence. Specifically, religious participation has the greatest negative impact on food consumption in the western region. In contrast, religious participation has the least negative impact on food consumption in the eastern region.