Religious freedom is seen as an unequivocal positive. However, unchecked religious freedom may not be a universal good thing for economic growth.

That's the controversial finding of a research study led by Shaomin Li, Eminent Scholar and professor of international business in Old Dominion University's Strome College of Business.

Li, Ilan Alon of Rollins College and Jun Wu of Savannah State University looked at data from the Pew Institute's religious freedom survey, which covers nearly 200 countries around the world. By cross-referencing that data with economic growth data, the researchers found that countries with stronger government restrictions on religion tend to grow faster economically.

The findings of the study were published in the Financial Times on Sept. 10, in a guest post entitled "Unchecked Religious Freedom is Not Good for Economic Growth."

The authors said while it's clear that tolerance of all religions is a universal value that every society should aim for, when exercising that religious freedom leads to sectarian conflict, it can be an economic negative.

"Our findings based on empirical data analysis support the argument that unregulated religious freedom is not conducive to economic development," the authors wrote. "At least from economic development perspective, it is warranted that the government must guarantee a nondiscriminatory, universal freedom of religion to all, and at the same time regulate religious freedom so that no religion should get preferential treatment and no religion may impose its views and practices onto others."

Using the example of Islamist insurgents in northern Iraq giving an ultimatum to Christians to convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, the authors noted that from the Islamist insurgents' view, they are practicing their religious belief.

"But their freedom to do so causes harm to others who do not practice Islam," the authors wrote. "There is little dispute that such "freedom" must be limited by the government; otherwise the unrestrained freedom of practicing one's religion may cause violence and disruption to economic activities. In this regard, government limitation on religious freedom may be necessary and conducive for economic growth."

See a full copy of the article at the Financial Times website HERE (sign-in required).

The authors' findings are contained in a study entitled "Religious freedom and economic growth: An empirical examination across countries," which will be presented at a conference this month at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown University.

Li studied in China and also worked in his home country as a business executive, qualifying him to be an expert witness before the U.S. Congress on China's reform.

He is the author of 14 books and more than 100 articles, which have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Business Studies, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and many other publications. In 2008, he received Virginia's top honor for university faculty, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award.