THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: empirical evidence from Brazil

Abstract

The constant changes in the Brazilian economic scenario had a direct impact on the levels of unemployment, forcing the agents to make important decisions regarding the maintenance of their incomes. One of the alternatives used for this purpose is entrepreneurship, through the creation of the business itself. However, making this decision involves several factors, and it is important to identify and measure them. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the characteristics that determine the decision to undertake and estimate how the religion can affect this decision. More specifically the study sought to verify the relationship between the Protestant religion and the decision to undertake, controlling for other factors pointed out in the literature. To do so, the database used was constructed through the microdata of the Demographic Censuses of 1991, 2000 and 2010.The data were modeled through the Logistic Regression model and the results show that being Protestant raises the chances of being entrepreneur in 10,30%, 8,2% and 2%, respectively in relation to 1991, 2000 and 2010 and 3, 3% in relation to the total sample, showing that religion is a factor that must be considered when analyzing the determinants of entrepreneurship.

Keywords

• entrepreneurship
• religious behavior
• protestantism
• economic behavior