The impact of religiosity on self-employment

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between religiosity based on the area with the number of self-employment in an area, i.e. city of Surakarta, Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach The researcher conducted a survey in 67 mosques in Surakarta, Indonesia, to capture religiosity level based on the area. Spearman correlation approach has been selected to investigate the relationship between religiosity and self-employment. Findings This study found that despite the female population being greater than male population in every district in Surakarta, on average, the number of female prayers were significantly less than male prayers either in Fajr or Maghrib prayer. In fact, the average number of Fajr prayers almost 50 per cent less than the average number of Maghrib prayers. Finally, the researcher found that the number of employees who work in the home industry is higher in the area that has a smaller gap on the number of Fajr and Maghrib prayers. Thus, the researcher might conclude that religiosity is positively associated with self-employment. Originality/value To best of researcher’s knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the relationship between religiosity level based on the area and self-employment. In addition, this study proposes a new methodology to measure Muslim’s religiosity. All in all, this study tries to untangle the conflicting evidence on the impact of religiosity on the self-employment.

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