American Economic Journal: Applied Economics · 2026 · Jeanet Bentzen、Alessandro Pizzigolotto、Lena Lindbjerg Sperling
中文摘要
政策能否塑造个人的价值观与信念？为考察这一问题，我们利用美国各州交错引入信仰型倡议这一自然实验。双重差分分析显示，这些倡议强化了宗教虔诚度以及保守宗教的社会观念，例如反对同性恋者的态度。证据指向因果效应：我们发现实施前不存在系统性差异；将比较对象限制在相邻县，以及利用处理异质性进行三重差分估计后，结果依然稳健。一个关键解释与宗教的标准模型一致，并得到非营利组织数据的支持，即这些倡议促进了信仰型组织的建立。（JEL D72, L31, Z12, Z13）
Abstract
Can policies shape personal values and beliefs? To examine, we exploit the staggered introduction of faith-based initiatives across US states. Our difference-in-differences analysis reveals that the initiatives strengthened religiosity and conservative-religious social views, such as attitudes against homosexuals. The evidence points to causal effects; we find no systematic differences prior to implementation, the results are robust to restricting comparison to contiguous counties and to conducting triple-differences estimation exploiting treatment heterogeneity. A key explanation, in line with standard models of religion and supported by data on nonprofit organizations, is that the initiatives facilitated the establishment of faith-based organizations. (JEL D72, L31, Z12, Z13)