Supply-Side Explanations for Religious Change

Finke, Roger; Iannaccone, Laurence R.

doi:10.1177/0002716293527001003

Cited by 239 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The link between religious competition and religious activity has attracted considerable attention in the empirical literature on the economics of religion. Several authors find that competition results in higher religious participation (Finke and Iannaccone, 1993; for a survey on that literature see Sherkat and Ellison, 1999;Barro and McCleary, 2003), with opposing views from Olson (1999) and Voas (2002). If the link actually exists, we expect that low religious diversity should rather weaken religion's power to control people and to influence their social norms.…”

Section: Buddhism and Hinduismmentioning

confidence: 92%

Religion and the Shadow Economy

Heinemann

Schneider

2011

SSRN Journal

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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp11038.pdf Non-technical SummaryReligion is increasingly acknowledged to be a cultural dimension which affects economic outcomes in different regards. This contribution focuses on religion's possible impact on the size of the shadow economy. Different dimensions of the religious markets are taken into account. These dimensions refer to the overall degree of religiosity, the specific impact of different religions, religious competition or the proximity between religion and the state. For example, we would expect that the shadow economy is smaller in religious countries and in countries with a close link between religion and the state. The former is to be expected because the ethical teaching of religions imposes additional non-pecuniary costs on believers performing unlawful informal transactions. And the latter should hold because religion as an ally of the secular state should have self-interest to defend the secular partner's financial basis.The empirical test makes use of the largest available country cross-section on the size of the shadow economy and matches this dataset with numerous religious indicators. The starting point is a baseline specification with standard economic determinants of shadow activities which then is augmented by religious indicators. We complement the analysis by a battery of robustness checks.Overall, our findings support the view that religion influences the level of informal transactions, albeit with several qualifications. The analysis did not support the view that countries with religious citizens have smaller shadow economies per se. However, there is a significant divergence across main religions: Countries dominated by Islam or Eastern religions are associated with smaller shadow economies compared to Christian countries for comparable levels of economic development and government effectiveness. Furthermore, the proximity between state and religion is relevant whereas the degree of religious competition has no measurable impact. Close ties between the dominant religion and the state are typical for countries with a lower share of economic activity in the informal sector. Obviously, religion uses its normative influence on believers as a "supernatural police" to protect state interests if state and religion are in a reciprocal relationship. The relatively low shares of the shadow economy for Islamic countries is remarkable, given that Islam...

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Section: Buddhism and Hinduismmentioning

confidence: 92%

Religion and the Shadow Economy

Heinemann

Schneider

2011

SSRN Journal

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“…The estimated coefficient of 0.87 (s.e.=0.14) in column 1 implies, if viewed causally, 21 that the imposition of a state religion would raise the monthly church attendance rate by 21 percentage points (starting from the mean of 36%). 22 This pattern conflicts with the one predicted in the religion-market model of Bainbridge (1987), Iannaccone (1991), Finke and Stark (1992), and Finke and Iannaccone (1993). In that view, state 21 One potential concern is that greater religiousness among the population might help to explain why a country has a state religion.…”

Section: Another Clear Pattern Inmentioning

confidence: 96%

Religion and Economic Growth

Barro¹,

McCleary²

2003

345

233

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Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth has typically neglected the influence of religion. To fill this gap, we use international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth.To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, we use instrumental variables suggested by our analysis of systems in which church attendance and beliefs are the dependent variables. The instruments are dummy variables for the presence of state religion and for regulation of the religion market, an indicator of religious pluralism, and the composition of religions. We find that economic growth responds positively to the extent of religious beliefs, notably those in hell and heaven, but negatively to church attendance. That is, growth depends on the extent of believing relative to belonging. These results accord with a perspective in which religious beliefs influence individual traits that enhance economic performance. The beliefs are, in turn, the principal output of the religion sector, and church attendance measures the inputs to this sector. Hence, for given beliefs, more church attendance signifies more resources used up by the religion sector.

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“…During the twentieth century, leading theoretical paradigms in the sociology of religion emphasized Americans' ability to freely choose how to identify and enact their religious faith within a deregulated religious marketplace (see, for example, [2,3,[25][26][27]. As Edgell ([1], p. 249) notes, "Market theorists argue that modernity creates the conditions that foster religious privatization, pluralism, and voluntarism, causing religion to thrive-and, ironically, to retain much of its public significance."…”

Section: Religious Belonging In Black and White Christian Churchesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Church” in Black and White: The Organizational Lives of Young Adults

2016

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Abstract:The religious lives of young adults have generally been investigated by examining what young people believe and their self-reported religious practices. Far less is known about young adults' organizational involvement and its impact on religious identities and ideas about religious commitment. Using data from site visit observations of religious congregations and organizations, and individual and focus group interviews with college-age black and white Christians, we find differences in how black and white students talk about their religious involvement; and with how they are incorporated into the lives of their congregations. White students tended to offer "organizational biographies" chronicling the contours of belonging as well as disengagement, and emphasizing the importance of fulfilling personal needs as a criterion for maintaining involvement. On the other hand, black students used "family" and "home" language and metaphors to describe how their religious involvement, a voluntary choice, was tied to a sense of "calling" and community. We show that this variation is aligned with organizational differences in black and white congregations that situate white youth as separate and black youth as integrated into the larger church community.

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Supply-Side Explanations for Religious Change

Cited by 239 publications

References 7 publications

Religion and the Shadow Economy

Religion and the Shadow Economy

Religion and Economic Growth

“Church” in Black and White: The Organizational Lives of Young Adults

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