IF DEVOUT folk, and Christians in particular, take their faith as seriously as they claim to, then you would expect it to have a big impact on the way they spend money. That was the assumption that Vince Showers, a finance professor and specialist in econometrics at Bradley University, Illinois, set out to test. To see what sort of behaviour might be expected, he and four fellow researchers looked at passages in the New Testament which appear to offer some guidance: for example, verses that urge people to take good care of their bodies, look after their families, avoid getting into debt and eschew vain adornment.
After using a lot of fancy statistical tools, they came up with some expected findings, and some rather unexpected ones. Households "with a strong commitment to faith"— demonstrated by higher spending on religious activities—are less likely to be weighed down by excessive mortgage outgoings or loan payments for cars. Compared with other households, they are more likely to be home owners but their property tax burden tends to be less—suggesting that "some moderation in [the] selection of home in terms of extravagance or location...."
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