On the causal effect of religiosity on life satisfaction using a propensity score matching technique Cristian Barra * Nino Speziale * Roberto Zotti * Abstract Using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data set, we investigate the effect of religious involvement on subjective well-being (SWB), specifically taking into account the implication of selection effects explaining religious influence. In order to measure the level of religious involvement, we construct different indices on the base of individual religious belonging, participation and beliefs applying a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) estimator. Our results show a positive and causal association between religiosity and life satisfaction which is confirmed among different aspects of religiosity such as belonging to any religion, attending religious services once a week or more and believing that religion makes a great difference in life. Our findings are robust to different aspects of life satisfaction. We offer an econometric account of the causal impact of different aspects of religiosity finding evidence that the causal effect on SWB is better captured than through typical regression methodologies focusing on the mean effects of the explanatory variables. Keywor ds: Subjective well-being; Religion; Propensity score technique JEL-Codes: C21; C40; I31; Z12 *Corresponding authors: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132 - 84084 - Fisciano (SA) – Italy E-mail: cbarra@unisa.it; nspeziale@unisa.it; rzotti@unisa.it