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