arbiter
JournalsAccount

Blessing from the Sage: Guan Yu Worship and Financial Development in China

Haoyuan Ding et al.

The Journal of Law and Economics2026https://doi.org/10.1086/735500article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Guan Yu worship has been a significant cultural force in China for centuries, shaping norms that foster generalized trust and acting as an informal institution in economic activities. Our findings reveal that regions with a higher historical density of Guan temples tend to have deeper financial development. To address potential endogeneity, we use the distance of each prefecture from Guan Yu’s hometown as an instrumental variable. The instrumented results confirm the robustness of our findings. Further analysis indicates that the underlying mechanism driving these outcomes is the enhancement of interpersonal and interfirm trust.

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/735500

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{haoyuan2026,
  title        = {{Blessing from the Sage: Guan Yu Worship and Financial Development in China}},
  author       = {Haoyuan Ding et al.},
  journal      = {The Journal of Law and Economics},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/735500},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Blessing from the Sage: Guan Yu Worship and Financial Development in China

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.