Volume 59, Issue 3 p. 455-475
Research Article

Church Voting Recommendations, Voter Preferences, and Political Decisions

Benno Torgler

Corresponding Author

Benno Torgler

School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology

Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology (BEST), Queensland University of Technology

CREMA – Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts

Correspondence should be addressed to Benno Torgler, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point, 2 George St, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia. E-mail: benno.torgler@qut.edu.au

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David Stadelmann

David Stadelmann

Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology (BEST), Queensland University of Technology

CREMA – Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts

Faculty of Law, Business & Economics, University of Bayreuth

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Marco Portmann

Marco Portmann

CREMA – Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts

Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Switzerland

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First published: 22 July 2020
Citations: 3

We acknowledge financial support from the Australian Research Council (FT110100463). We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Abstract

In Switzerland, two key church institutions—the Conference of Swiss Bishops and the Federation of Protestant Churches—make public recommendations on how to vote for certain referenda. We leverage this situation to directly measure religious organizations’ power to reflect and shape human decision making. That is, using a direct measure of voters’ commitment to their religious institution, we analyze whether they are more likely to vote in line with this organization's voting recommendation. We find that these recommendations do indeed wield influence, implying that even in a secularized world, religion plays a crucial role in voting decisions. Our results hold for both aggregate and individual-level voting decisions.

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