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Abstract
This thesis consists of three independent essays studying the interactions between economics, politics and religion, Islam, in particular.
In the first essay “Render unto Caesar: Taxes, Charity and Political Islam,” we investigate the origins of support for religious parties. Using an original nationally representative micro-level data I collected in Tunisia, we find that economic status determines the choice to vote for religious parties as much or more than individual religiosity. We also offer a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon, grounded on the link between religious parties and charities.
In the second essay “Envy and the Islamic Revival: Experimental Evidence from Tunisia,” I investigate the psychological factors at the origin of the Islamic revival, defined as the recent resurgence of Islamic culture and against previous trends of “westernization.” I rely on experimental evidence I collected in Tunisia and find that envy triggers support for the Islamic revival especially among highly religious individuals. Survey data provides consistent results with my experimental findings.
In the third essay “Are Muslim immigrants really different? Experimental Evidence from the Lebanese Australian Community” we investigate the effect of religion, i.e. being Muslim, by comparing whether Muslim behave differently to their Christian counterparts towards female and poor recipients. We use experimental evidence that we collected in Sydney among the Lebanese migrant community and find that when compared to Christians, Muslims are significantly more cooperative with the poor and that this effect is stronger when the poor recipient is female.