Third Annual Conference on Religion, Economics and Culture

Kansas City, October 22-24, 2004

 *CONFERENCE PROGRAM*

(Follow links below for *.pdf files for most papers,
and follow this link to view abstracts)

------------------------------------ FRIDAY ------------------------------------ 

Economic Consequences of Religious Freedom

"Religion's Role in the Rule of Law." Charles North and Carl Gwin, Baylor University.  [paper-pdf]

“The Cost of Bigotry: The Educational and Economic Consequences of Restricting Missions.” Robert Woodberry,  University of Texas at Austin

“Religion, Ethnicity, and Social Conflict: An International Assessment."  Roger Finke, Pennsylvania State University

“The Cities of God Versus the Countries of Earth: The Restriction of Religious Freedom (RRF) Index.”  Brian Grim, Pennsylvania State University [paper-pdf]

 

Religious Markets in Contemporary Europe

“Willow Creek or Hollow Creed?” Eric Sengers,  Kampen Theological University [paper-pdf]

“Niches in the Islamic Religious Market and Fundamentalism: Examples from Turkey and other Countries.” Massimo Introvigne, 'Center for Studies on New Religions, Italy. [paper-pdf]

“Religion in Europe:  One theme, many variations?” David Voas, University of Manchester [paper-pdf]

 

Religion and Fertility

“From Empty Pews to Empty Cradles: Fertility Decline among European Catholics.” Eli Berman, UC San Diego; Laurence R. Iannaccone,  George Mason University, and Giuseppe Ragusa, UC San Diego. [paper-pdf]

“Teen Childbearing and Community Religiosity.” Linda Loury, Tufts University [paper-pdf]

“Religion and Fertility in India:  The Role of Son Preference and Daughter Aversion.” Sriya Iyer,  Cambridge and Vani Borooah, the University of Ulster [paper-pdf]

“Marital Fertility and Religion:  Recent Changes in Spain.”  Alicia Adsera, University of Illinois at Chicago. [paper-pdf]

 

Applying and Expanding the Economic Theories to Religions in China

“Tourist and Temples:  Exploring the Effect of the Tourism Market on the Theravada Monks of Southwest China.”  Thomas Borchert, The University of Chicago

“The Marketplace of Conversion:  Comparisons in Chinese and Latin American Pentecostalism.” Candi K. Cann,  Harvard University

“The Unintended Consequences of Religious Suppression: Understanding the Growth of Suppressed Religions.” Yunfeng Lu, City University of Hong Kong.  [paper-pdf]

“An Economics of Religious Shortage:  Communist China in Transition.” Fenggang Yang, Purdue University

 

Economic Consequences of Religious Identity

“How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage:  Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York.” Barak Richman, Duke University [paper-pdf]

“Economic Growth and Religious Production Efficiency.” Esa Mangeloja,  University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. [paper-pdf]

“The Entrepreneurial Ethic of the Sikhs: Religious Signaling and the Importance of Social Capital for Trust and Exchange.” Nathaniel Paxson,  George Mason University [paper-pdf]

 

Beliefs and Attitudes

“Measuring Religious Differences:  The Fundamental Importance of God’s Character.” Christopher Bader and Paul Froese, Baylor University

“Beyond Belief:  Atheism, Agnosticism, and Theistic Certainty in the United States.” Darren Sherkat, Southern Illinois University

“God and the Global Economy: Religion and Attitudes Toward Trade and Immigration.” Joseph P. Daniels, Marquette University, and Marc von der Ruhr,  St. Norbert College. [paper-pdf]

"Risk, Discounting, and Religious Choice: Evidence from Panel Data" Brian J. Osoba, West Virginia University. [paper-pdf]

 

Religion, Deprivation, and Conflict

"Club Goods and Group Identity: Evidence from Islamic Resurgence During the Indonesian Financial Crisis." Daniel Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [paper-pdf] 

"Rational Martyrs vs. Hard Targets: Evidence on the Tactical Use of Suicide Attacks"  Eli Berman, UC San Diego/NBER and David Laitin, Stanford. [paper-pdf]

“Anti-terrorism and Economic Theology: An Exercise in 'Comparative Theology'.”  Robert H. Nelson,  University of Maryland.  [paper-pdf]

 

Religion and Economic Development: Historical Perspectives

“Christianity and Capitalist Civilization.” Salim Rashid, University of Illinois [paper-pdf]

“The transformation of work ethics in Austria: The imitation of Protestant institutions by a Catholic country.” Peter Lewisch, Imadec University [paper-pdf]

"Economic Rationale of Religious Tolerance: Policies of the Ottoman Sultan vs. the Pope" Resit Ergener,  Bogazici University [paper-pdf]

“A Pious and Profitable Mystery: Purgatory, Cooperation, and the Commercialization of Late Medieval England.” Gary Richardson,  UC Irvine. [paper-pdf]

 

Theories of Economic and Religious Behavior

“Proverbial Path.” Bridget I. Butkevich, George Mason University; David M Levy, (GMU); Dan Houser (GMU); Sandra Peart (Baldwin Wallace College); and M. Ali Khan (Johns Hopkins). [paper-pdf]

“Cosmic Utilitarianism and the Heckscher-Viner Debate: Religion in Classical Economics.” David Levy, George Mason University, and Sandra Peart,  Baldwin-Wallace College [paper-pdf]

 “Some Implications of Belief in the Afterlife and the Allocation of Time to Spirituality.” Constantino Hevia, The University of Chicago  [paper-pdf]

“Accidental Atheists:  Agent-based Model of Religious Regionalism” Laurence R. Iannaccone, George Mason University, and Michael McKowsky, George Mason University. [paper-pdf]

 

Analyzing Catholic Institutions and History

“What Makes a Progressive Religious Leader?: Analyzing Votes from the Second Vatican Council.” Melissa Wilde, Indiana University; Kristin Geraty; Shelley Nelson; Emily Bowman and Grace Yukich.  [paper-pdf] [appendix-pdf]

“The Triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire:  An Economic Interpretation.” Mario Ferrero, University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy [paper-pdf]

“Franchise Conflict:  The Tide of Antipopes in the Aftermath of the Eastern Schism.” Kristina Terkun, James Madison University. [paper-pdf]

“The Papal Conclave:  How do Cardinals Divine the Will of God?” J. T. Toman,  University of Sydney, Australia [paper-pdf]

 

Faith and Philanthropic Activity

“Welfare Spending and Religious Participation:  Evidence from the United States.” Anthony Gill,  University of Washington [paper-pdf]

“Race and Charitable Church Activity.” Daniel Hungerman,  Duke University [paper-pdf]

 “Religious Charities and Government Funding.” Ayman Reda,  Michigan State University [paper-pdf]

“Religious Affiliation and Philanthropy.” Thomas Smith,  University of Illinois at Chicago  [paper-pdf]

 

Religious Markets

“Religious Competition and Faithful Remnant:  Two Ways that Religious Markets Affect Congregations.” Daniel Olson,  Indiana University South Bend, and David Sikkink, University of Notre Dame [paper-pdf]

"Religious Pluralism and Religious Adherence in U.S. Counties: Assessing the Reassessment" Charles North and Melissa Staha, Baylor University [paper-pdf]

“Exploring the Market of Hindu Religion.” Ishita Datta Ray  and Tuhin K. Das, Jadavpur University [paper-pdf]

 

REC Keynote Session

“Looking Forward: A Future for the Economics of Religion.” Laurence R. Iannaccone, (George Mason University)

Discussion: Evelyn Lehrer (University of Illinois at Chicago); Anthony Gill (University of Washington); Roger Finke (Penn State University); and Kimon Sargeant (Templeton Foundation).

Convener:  Rodney Stark, President, SSSR

 

Evolutionary Approaches to the Study of Religion

“Scars for War:  Evaluating Alternative Signaling Explanations for Cross-cultural Variance in Ritual Costs.” Richard Sosis, Howard Kress and James Boster, University of Connecticut  [paper-pdf]

“Random religions: Evaluating evolutionary theories of religion with a random sample.” David Sloan Wilson,  Binghamton University  [paper-pdf]

“Nature's Medicine: Empirical Constraint and the Evolution of Religious Healing.” Joseph Bulbulia, Victoria University, New Zealand [paper-pdf]

“The Bioeconomics of Religious and Ethnically-Homogeneous Merchant Groups as Adaptive Units.” Janet T. Landa, York University, Canada.

 

Religion, Family, and Education

“The Impact of Religious Identification on Differences in Educational Attainment Among American Women 2001.” Ariela Keysar and Barry Kosmin, Brooklyn College CUNY [paper-pdf]

 “Religious Affiliation and Participation as Determinants of Women's Educational Attainment and Wages.” Evelyn Lehrer,  University of Illinois at Chicago [paper-pdf]

“Preserving Religious Identity through Education: Economic Analysis and Evidence from the US.”  Danny Cohen-Zada, Ben-Gurion University [paper-pdf] [1]