Jeanet Sinding Bentzen

PhD, Economics

  • Øster Farigmagsgade 5, Gammeltoftsgade 17, 26-2-26

    1353 København K

  • Source: Scopus
20072023

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Short presentation

Find more information on my website here.

Ultimately, I am interested in why some countries are richer than others are. This interest has brought me to focus on religion and its’ consequences for society. Religion obviously influences our internal values and beliefs, but also the institutions that surround us. My research is mainly empirical and I use datasets spanning thousands or millions of individuals or companies across several societies. My general research interests are political economy, cultural values, economic growth, and institutions.

Current research

I currently focus on religiosity, meaning the degree of religious beliefs, independently of the God(s) a person believes in. The idea is that people or societies are more similar in terms of their religiosity than in terms of their particular religious beliefs. For instance, a highly devout Protestant has more in common with a highly devout Muslim than he or she does with a less religious Protestant. One challenge is measuring the intensity of religious beliefs. I currently am conducting research showing than one can use peoples’ first names to infer the religiosity of their parents. We can use these novel measures to examine the consequences of differences in religiosity across various societies across the World.

Teaching

I teach two mandatory bachelor courses. Economic history investigates the historical origins of modern growth differences and Philosophy of Science deals with the limits and benefits of economic models – what can we use economic models for? And what can we not use them for? I also teach the seminar "Fundamental Determinants of Economic Performance", where we investigate empirically the deep determinants of economic outcomes; cultural values, institutions, and geography. In addition, I supervise bachelor and master.

Education/Academic qualification

Economics, PhD, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

1 Feb 200825 Nov 2011

Award Date: 25 Nov 2011

Economics, M.Sc. in Economics, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

Award Date: 29 Sep 2006

External positions

Head of Section, Finansministeriet

1 Jan 200715 Aug 2007

Keywords

  • Faculty of Social Sciences
  • Political Economy
  • Culture
  • Institutions
  • Religion
  • Inequality
  • Empirical analysis
  • Economic Growth
  • Econometrics

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or