Socio-cultural origins of the patterns of technological innovation: What is the likely interaction among religious culture, religious plurality and innovation? Towards a theory of socio-cultural drivers of the patterns of technological innovation

Abstract

Religion shapes people's attitude of mind, education, culture and institutions of countries and likely is a main socio-cultural determinant of the patterns of technological innovation. This study analyses the process of technological innovation exploring the predominant religious culture of countries and tests the hypothesis that a higher religious plurality, a main proxy of cultural diversity, the higher the technological outputs in advanced economies. The findings show that, on average, societies with a predominance of the Protestant, Jewish and Eastern religions tend to have technological performance higher than societies with other predominant religious cultures. In addition, the statistical evidence supports de facto the hypothesis that a higher religious fractionalization, ceteris paribus, has a positive effect on technological outputs. This appears to be particularly true among richer and more democratic countries, which are mainly located in the European and North-American geo-economic areas. Further discussion is needed to understand true causality for developing a socio-economic theory of the origins of patterns of technological innovation.