Private School Choice: The Effects of Religious Affiliation and Participation [Cohen-Zada; Sander]
Danny Cohen-Zada (Ben-Gurion University) and William Sander (DePaul University)
In this paper, we quantify the religious factor in private education in the United States by estimating a Random Utility Model of school-choice in which households choose among public, private-nonsectarian, Catholic and Protestant schools. In our model households differ not only in their income levels but also in their religion and religiosity levels. The model is then estimated using multinomial logit and multinomial probit regressions of attendance at different types of private schools using individual data from the “General Social Survey”. We find that both religion and religiosity have important effects on the demand for the different types of private schools. Further, it is shown that if religiosity is not taken into account (the usual case), the effect of religion on demand is biased. Our results imply that previous studies on the treatment effect of Catholic schools that have not taken into account the selection of high-religiosity youth into Catholic schools over-estimated the positive influence of Catholic schools.
File: Zada-Cohen-2007paper.doc [664.00KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *cohen-zada, *sander, @asrec'07, catholic, catholic school, demand for schooling, gss, protestant, religious education, school choice
Teaching the Economics of Religion: Mixing it into Undergraduate Microeconomics Courses [Stonebraker]
Robert J. Stonebraker
Winthrop University
Integrating topics from the economics of religion can enrich a wide variety of undergraduate courses that use microeconomics. Students typically respond favorably and gain an enhanced appreciation of the power of economic concepts. Although the types of concepts most easily addressed will vary with the course and audience, the most natural points of intersection include: (1) a discussion of free-rider problems in religious organizations in a section on externality and public good issues, (2) monopoly structure and conduct, (3) rent-seeking behavior under government regulation, (4) market strategies, and (5) Hotelling models of spatial competition.
File: StonbreakerTeaching Religion Panel.doc [64.00KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *stonebraker, @asrec'07, free riding, monopoly, rent seeking, spatial competition, teaching
Entry in Local Religious Markets [Sawkins, Mochrie, Naumov]
J.W. Sawkins, R.I. Mochrie and A.U.Naumov
Heriot-Watt University,
This paper analyses the entry of rival church denominations into local religious markets in late nineteenth century Scotland. Employing a version of the model developed by Bresnahan and Reiss (1990, 1991) data on market structure and population are used to derive probit estimates of entry thresholds. Reasons for the differences between entry thresholds across markets are analysed using historic institutional information. The results shed new light on the way in which church objectives, church financing and religious market structure combine to determine the pattern of entry in local religious markets.
File: SawkinsMochrieNaumovEntryinRelMarks.pdf [158.06KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *mochrie, *naumov, *sawkins, @asrec'07, nineteenth century, religious markets, scotland
Interest Bans and Institutions: An Economic Theory of Inhibitive Law Persistence in Islam and Christianity [Rubin]
Jared Rubin
California State University, Fullerton
Until recently, many scholars attributed the divergence in Middle Eastern and Western European economic development to the “conservative nature” of Islam. This paper departs from such scholarship, suggesting that institutions supporting economically inhibitive laws are more likely to be self-enforcing in the Muslim world – providing an appearance of conservatism. A theoretical model suggests that this outcome stems from the greater degree of overlap between religious and political authorities in Islam. I substantiate this claim by analyzing interest bans, highlighting the mechanisms supporting both the ban’s persistence in Islam and the emergence of inflexible credit-extending institutions in the Ottoman Empire.
File: Rubin-InterestBansInstitutions-10-21-07ASREC.pdf [381.22KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *rubin, @asrec'07, economic development, economic growth, economic history, islam, legitimacy
Rational Irrationality as a Habit: A Dynamic Approach Towards Belief Formation [Rohác]
Dalibor Rohác
George Mason University
In this paper, we present a dynamic model of rational irrationality, which explains how individuals choose their optimal paths of beliefs and how these respond to changes in underlying choice parameters. Our model extends the literature on cognitive dissonance, self deception and rational irrationality by providing a spatial model of formation of beliefs. This setting is used as basis for a dynamic model which depicts false beliefs as a habit. Habit formation in beliefs can be explained in terms of selective memory management. When irrational beliefs are habit-forming, then a nonconvexity in choice of optimal path of beliefs arises. New implications of our work include the conclusion that when dissonance between ones desired belief and the state of the world exists, the individual will be forced to adopt the realistic belief if the wedge between the two is large enough. More importantly, our model predicts that individuals will always choose either sticking to a realistic perception of the world or succumbing entirely to their irrational belief.
File: Rohac-RationalIrrationality-10-21-07.pdf [220.47KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *rohac, @asrec'07, cognitive dissonance, habit formation, rational irrationality
Praying for a Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Church Growth [Beckworth]
David Beckworth
Texas State University
A widely-held view is that economic distress increases religiosity and vice versa. This understanding implies there should be an inverse relationship between the business cycle and religiosity. This possibility is empirically explored in this paper by examining the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and Protestant church growth in the United States. The findings of this paper suggest there is a countercyclical component to church growth for Protestant denominations, particularly for evangelical Protestants.
File: praying_for_a_recession1.pdf [376.04KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *beckworth, @asrec'07, business cycle, church attendance, growth, recession, religiosity
Religion and Economic Development in the post-Socialist Countries [Krasnozhon]
Leonid A. Krasnozhon
George Mason University
The transition of post-socialist countries from socialism to capitalism and from autocracy to democracy is conventionally considered to be one of the major events in the modern history of world economic development. The fact that some countries were more successful in transition than others inspires and continues to inspire a large number of empirical research typically focusing on the determinants of economic development while ignoring the impact of religion. This study is an attempt to fill this gap and investigate the differential impact of main religious denominations on economic development in post-communist countries.
File: Kraznozhon-Rel&EconDeviPostSoc.pdf [327.98KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *krasnozhon, @asrec'07, economic development, post-communist countries, religion
Triangulating the World’s Most Dynamic Religious Market: Africa Using a Quanti-Qualitative Method (QQM) [Grim]
Brian J. Grim
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
The African continent is arguably the world’s most dynamic religious marketplace, not only in terms of the growth of indigenous forms of Islam and Christianity but also the growing impact of African spirituality on the world. Despite this, empirical data on religion in Africa are scattered and lacking coordination. In this article I begin by briefly discussing important trends in the study of religion and public life. Then, applying what I have called the quanti-qualitative method (QQM), I describe the “triangulation” of three different types of information used to provide a richer understanding of religion and public life in Africa. First, I show how censuses, demographic surveys and public opinion surveys are used to develop well-sourced adherent estimates for countries. Second, I demonstrate how cross-national public opinion surveys are used to identify the type and intensity of attitudes, religious beliefs and reported behaviors among different demographic segments of countries. And third, I describe how deeper information on the regulation of religion and religious violence is obtained by coding major reports such as the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom reports. I conclude with the argument that a clear understanding of religion is no longer an academic specialty – it is an academic necessity.
File: Grim_B_J_Triangulating_Religion_in_Africa.pdf [531.33KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *grim, @asrec'07, africa, cross-national, religious markets
Free Riding in Religious Congregations: Can it be Eradicated? [Sanz]
Sergio Figueroa Sanz
Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico
Widespread consensus regarding the free rider problem is that it arises in the context of publicly provided goods. Publicly provided private goods, where free riding is induced rather pertaining to the goods’ nature itself, are a familiar sight. Several studies have evidenced that free riders are also quite common among religious communities and tend to be more frequent as communities increase in size and market share. We extend the literature on this subject by arguing that in changing the way religious services are supplied for, free riding in religious congregations may be eradicated. The key consideration is that free riding in this context is an artificially induced problem. The introduction of a pricing mechanism for religious services would not only eliminate free riding but result in a more efficient allocation of resources in religious communities, provide for consistent information to religious leaders for strategic decision making, and foster the demand from adherents for accountability and service quality. Evidence showing the effect of some religious practices over desirable economic outcomes suggests that free riding eradication in religious congregations may have a relevant impact not only within congregations but across all markets where adherents participate, if we consider competitive scenarios in religious service provision.
File: Freeridingeradication_SergioFigueroa_MEXICO.pdf [816.61KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *sanz, @asrec'07, congregations, free riding, religious markets
Moving on Over: Geographic Mobility as a Predictor of Religious Switching and Attendance Frequency in the American Religious Landscape [Born]
Christopher Born
The Catholic University of America
Geographic mobility has been on the rise over the last twenty years. Measuring how location change impacts belief and church attendance is essential in understanding the religious tendencies and potentialities of the growing cohort of the geographically mobile. Toward that end, this paper examines data from the 1988-1991 General Social Survey to determine whether geographic mobility and/or religious switching can predict the frequency with which people attend church services. The first section analyzes geographic mobility and its impact on religious switching. The results of the binary logistic regression support the hypothesis that geographic mobility increases the odds of switching religions. In the second section, religious switching is examined to determine if those who switch religions are more or less likely to be frequent attendees of church services. Previous studies conclude that switchers are more religious on average than non-switchers on measures of belief, church attendance, and religious experience (Hadaway 1980, Roof and McKinney 1987, Hadaway and Marler 1993). It stands to reason that actively choosing one’s religion will lead to heightened participation, however, this does not appear to be the case. A logistic regression analysis of the 1988-1991 GSS survey shows that there is no significant difference in frequency of attendance when examining switchers against non-switchers. The paper concludes in discussing potential reasons for the new findings and implications for future research.
File: Chirs Born - ASREC Paper - 2007.doc [157.00KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *born, @asrec'07, gss, mobility, religious attendance, religious switching
Free Riding, Market Structure, And Member Commitment [Hull, Lipford]
Brooks B. Hull
Jody Lipford
We use data on South Carolina Baptist congregations to address several questions related to religious market structure and member behavior:
1. Is there a free rider problem for larger denominations? That is, do per member donations decline as a denomination grows?
2. Does competition between Baptist congregations help or hurt Baptist congregations? That is, how does competition between congregations offering a “standardized” doctrine affect members?
3. Does competition between Baptist and non-Baptist congregations help or hurt Baptist congregations? That is, how does competition between congregations offering “non-standardized” doctrine affect members?
Previous empirical and theoretical work offers contradictory conclusions. We review the theory, clarifying some issues. Our empirical work is based on membership and donation data for about 1800 Baptist congregations in South Carolina. Results suggest that free riding increases as denominations grow larger, an effect mitigated by the increasing level of services offered as denominations grow. Competition between Baptist congregations reduces per member donations and competition with non-Baptist congregations increases per member donations.
File: BrooksHullSCChurch.doc [89.00KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: *hull, *lipford, @asrec'07, baptist, commitment, congregations, free-riders, free riding, history, religious markets
Religion, Altruism and Social Capital [Smith_N]
Nathan Smith
People participate in religion, among other reasons, to meet people, make friends, and form communities. We all know this, yet this fact remains largely opaque to economic theory. If we try to regard community as a “good” which is bought and sold, then who are the buyers, who are the sellers, what is the price, and what is the “technology” by which the good is produced? Yet community clearly is a good that people value, and their desire for it affects their economic behavior, and one of the things they do for its sake is religion. They hire preachers and choir directors, build churches, burn gas driving to church on Sunday mornings, submit, more or less, to some restrictions on behavior, so that they can, in the process, make a lot of friends, with whom they organize church socials and holiday celebrations and Bible studies and parties, and whom they turn to for aid in times of need, for job references and advice, for help moving house, and sometimes to buy and sell things, arrange business partnerships, rent property, and give things away. To the extent that religion’s benefits are supernatural or realized only in the afterlife, economists have some excuse if their explanatory efforts remain somewhat incomplete (though the study of the market for “supernatural” goods has been surprisingly productive). But seeking social connections is the type of this-worldly motivation that should be accessible to economic analysis. Nonetheless, economic studies of how community and social connections serve to motivate religious participation remain few.
It sometimes occurs that a scientific discipline finds some observed fact about the world inexplicable not because it hasn’t made the key observation and conducted the right experiment, but because some fundamental flaw in the paradigm of that science makes it unable to think about the problem in the right way. In this paper, I will argue that the fact just mentioned—that people go to church for the community, among other things—is just this kind of fact with respect to the paradigm of standard microeconomic theory, as characterized by such assumptions as perfect information, complete contracts, exogenous preferences, and self-seeking “rational agents.” I will sketch an alternative paradigm of human interaction, rooted in the game-theoretic analysis of social capital and behavioral assumptions that allow for altruism, which can sometimes be externally induced. (The new paradigm sketched here includes the old paradigm as a special case.) In the process, I will provide a definition of “social capital” which I hope will be an advance over what has been provided in the literature so far, by clarifying precisely in what sense social capital really exists, and by showing how social capital may be regarded as a “private” good. I will then apply the paradigm to the question at hand—how does community motivate religious participation? My hope is that although the paradigm’s development remains somewhat open-ended, it will be clear to readers how it can render this puzzle transparent.
File: NSmith - Religion, Altruism and Social Capital 9-21-07.doc [374.00KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: *smith_n, @asrec'07, altruism, social capital
Religion, Exchange, Coexistence and Growth [Ergener]
Resit Ergener
Bogazici University
This paper is an attempt to establish a general framework on the relationship between religion and exchange, other factors being constant. Only a few historical examples are referred to and the argument is presented mainly in a theoretical framework. Religion can be used as a tool to establish networks of trust to facilitate reciprocal exchange, to justify exploitation and to encourage charity. It would be wrong to identify religion with only one of these influences on exchange. Policies adopted by a faith toward coexistence with other faiths and the path to economic development taken by a community made up by the believers of a religion, will be affected by how religion is employed with regard to exchange relations and by the nature of the relations a religious community has with other communities (war or trade).
File: RESIT ERGENER 2007.pdf [39.61KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *ergener, @asrec'07, exchange, growth
Does economic development cause a decline in religiosity? Explaining the separation between Church and State in France in 1905 [Franck]
Raphaël Franck
Bar Ilan University
This paper provides a test of the secularization hypothesis, which argues that economic development leads to a decline in religiosity, by focusing on the support for the separation of Church and State in France. It examines whether the representatives who supported the separation in the lower house of Parliament on 3 July 1905 were indeed returned in the most developed areas of France. Our results provide scant evidence for the secularization hypothesis. Rather, they seem to indicate that the decline in faith originated in the most rural areas of the countries, where the teachings of the Church were progressively rejected. Keywords: Economic Growth; Elections; Religion; Secularization.
File: franck 030907 ASREC.pdf [81.07KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *franck, @asrec'07, economic growth, elections, france, religion, secularization
Strategic Congregational Management [Bejarano]
Hernan Bejarano
Pennsylvania State University
We developed a framework where the behavior of two types of agents in a society is modeled to represent the implicit problem faced by two types of rational agents. The first type of agent is a congregational leader who tries maximizes the size and stability of his congregation. The second kind of agents are the members of the society, these agents have to who have to choose which congregation they would like to join as well as for how long to stay as member in order congregations maximize their expected utility. We found that in the congregational monopoly environment the stability of the congregation is related to the ability of the congregational leader to influence the members of the congregation to impose a social cost on the possible defecting members
File: Bejarano almost done.pdf [162.88KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *bejarano, @asrec'07, congregations, monopoly
Occupation and Gender: American Jews at the Millennium [Chiswick,_C]
Chiswick, Carmel U.
University of Illinois at Chicago
American Jewish women are active labor force participants. The implications of this for Jewish family life is the subject of much discussion, but the implications for Jewish communal life are also substantial. This paper uses data from NJPS 2000/2001 to provide an empirical underpinning for a discussion of the many consequences of women’s work for the American Jewish community. Part II presents the basic data on the labor force experience of Jewish women and two-career families. Part III looks at the occupations of married Jewish men and women, and Part IV looks at the educational attainments that underlie these patterns. Part V discusses some associated demographic behaviors, and Part VI concludes with a summary and a brief discussion of consequences.
File: Chiswick OccGen Brandeis.doc [276.50KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: *chiswick_c, @asrec'07, economics of religion, judaism, njps, women
A “Prejudice” for the Thinking Classes: Media Exposure Political Sophistication and the Anti-Christian Fundamentalist [Bolce; De Maio]
Louis Bolce; Gerald De Maio
Abstract: Research on attitudes toward Christian fundamentalists shows that antagonism toward this group has become a significant factor since the early 1990s in structuring candidate preferences and issue positions concerning the place of religion and religiously informed moral conviction in public life. In view that religious outgroup animus as a driving force in voting behavior was thought to have been laid to rest by President Kennedy’s triumph in the 1960 election, the rise of political anti-fundamentalism in the contemporary era can be viewed as a rather remarkable development. This paper explores how information conveyed in news media helped inform popular evaluations of fundamentalists and instruct anti-fundamentalists on how to make use of these judgments politically in the culture wars. Our thesis is that attitudes toward Christian fundamentalists can be considered in large measure as a reaction to messages about this group carried in media, filtered through individual differences in political attentiveness and predispositions. Using the insights of schema theory and political communications studies on impression formation, we argue that, in response to the relentlessly negative coverage of Christian fundamentalists in the mainstream press, persons most attentive to media during this time frame, other things equal, would be more likely to feel antagonistic toward fundamentalists and more inclined to hold negative stereotypes of members of this group, despite their greater commitment to tolerance and anti-prejudice norms in the abstract. Data from the 1988-2004 American National Election Studies (ANES) show significant media effects, which increased over time, particularly among the sophisticated segment of the public. Our findings illuminate how variation in media attentiveness and individual differences in political and cultural predispostions conjoin to determine whether and the degree to which non-fundamentalists feel antagonistically toward Christian fundamentalists. The significant media effects indicate to a trained eye that anti-fundamentalism has become a fashionable prejudice for the thinking classes.
File: asrec07.final.bolce.demaio.doc [163.00KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *bolce, *de maio, @asrec'07, anes, fundamentalist, fundamentalists, media, nes, politics and religion, religious right
Deregulating Religion: The Economics of Church and State [Finke, Iannaccone, Stark]
Laurence R. Iannaccone
Santa Clara University
Roger Finke
Purdue University
Rodney Stark
University of Washington
Economic Inquiry
Western Economic Association International
Traditional religious research fails to recognize religion as a market phenomenon. It especially overlooks supply-side factors that shape the incentives and opportunities of religious firms, emphasizing instead demand-side shifts in the perceptions, tastes, and needs of consumers. This paper reviews the effects of government actions that alter religious supply. Our examples demonstrate that simple deregulation lies at the root of major religious trends and that the vitality of a religious market depends critically upon its competitiveness. (JEL: L51)
File: Iannaccone - Deregulating Religion.pdf [1.57MB]
Published 04/01/1997
Filed under: (1997), *finke, *iannaccone, *stark, @asrec'07, competition, deregulation, monopoly, religious firms, religious markets