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The New Economics of Religion
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Working paper that surveys current research in the economics of religion.
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... It is emphasized that religiosity can influence economic performance and behaviour. Economic studies of religion can contribute in three ways (Iyer, 2015): (I) they show how economic and statistical tools can be used to evaluate the role of religion in society; (II) they continue to point out the economics of non-market behavior illustrating the role that norms, values, social capital, and 'spiritual capital' may play in influencing human behavior by affecting both beliefs and actions; (III) they show how culture more broadly, whether through religion or other types of cultural beliefs, can affect economic systems. As will be shown in the following section, various studies examine the impact of religion on economic growth and development and vice versa. ...
... The economics of religion is best defined as the use of the tools of economic analysis to study phenomena related to religion, where religion can be either the outcome of interest (religion-as-dependent-variable) or the influencing factor on the outcome of interest (religion-as-independent-variable) (North, 2018). This is consistent with Iyer (2015), who explains that the economics of religion is research that uses the tools and methods of economics to examine religion as a dependent variable or as an independent variable for other socio-economic outcomes. Furthermore, economics of religion must be distinguished from what might be called 'religious economics' which is the use of religious ideas to provide social commentary on economic systems or behaviors (Iyer, 2015). ...
... This is consistent with Iyer (2015), who explains that the economics of religion is research that uses the tools and methods of economics to examine religion as a dependent variable or as an independent variable for other socio-economic outcomes. Furthermore, economics of religion must be distinguished from what might be called 'religious economics' which is the use of religious ideas to provide social commentary on economic systems or behaviors (Iyer, 2015). Although the economics of religion is intellectually based on the work of Smith and Weber, it became a "scientific" field of study when a quantitative, mathematically-based methodology for social surveys developed during and after World War II and was applied to sociological issues (McCleary, 2011). ...
The economics of religion has become a specific field of economics in recent decades. From households to markets, various economic entities, religious groups, and institutions are analysed. It is emphasized that religiosity can influence economic performance and behaviour. In addition, various studies examine the impact of religion on economic growth and development and vice versa. Islamic finance has only recently established itself in the contemporary financial world. Islamic finance, led by Islamic banks, is considered more socially responsible than conventional banking due to the profit and loss sharing paradigm. It can be said that Islamic finance isone of the attempts to develop religion- based businesses. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the impact of religiosity on consumer attitudes and preferences toward Islamic financial services. Islamic finance is one of the fastest growingsegments of the global financial industry today. Many factors have contributed to the strong growth of Islamic finance. Nevertheless, religion can be considered as the most important reason why customers prefer Islamic financial institutions, i.e. Islamicbanks. From the literature analysed, a huge number of research has stated that religion is a main reason for using Islamic banking services. On the other hand, some studies show that religiosity does not play a major role in the selection criteria for Islamic banks.In this paper, the research method of a literature review is used. Theoretical and empirical studies show different approaches, methods and results in analysing the relationship between religiosity and Islamic banking. The main findings of this research are the comparative analysis of different empirical scientific studies on the impact of religiosity on consumers' behaviour, attitudes and preferences towards Islamic banking products and services. It is expected that the results of this study will contribute to a better understanding of religious consumers' behaviour towards Islamic banking products.
This study investigates the Georgian Orthodox Church’s response to declining fertility rates through a 2007 intervention, wherein the Patriarch personally baptized 3 and higher-parity children. Employing synthetic control and interrupted time series methods using macro data, we find suggestive evidence of increased fertility rates. Validating these findings with micro data from a representative sample of Georgian women, we use quasi-experimental variation generated by religion, ethnicity, and marital status of the women and the timing of the announcement to estimate the causal impact using the difference-in-differences estimator. We find a 17% increase (0.3 children per woman) in the national total fertility rate, a 42% increase in Georgian Orthodox women’s birth rate within marriage (an increase in annual hazard rate of 3.5 percentage points), and a 100% increase in their 3 and higher-order birth rate within marriage (1.3 percentage points higher annual hazard rate). The impact of the intervention also correlates with higher marriage rates and reduced reported abortions, aligning with the church’s goals. This research emphasizes the potential impact of non-economic factors such as religion and the influence of traditional authority figures on shifting fertility patterns in industrialized, educated, and low-fertility societies.
Can moral appeals motivate individuals to choose less carbon-intensive diets? In a survey-embedded forced-choice conjoint experiment involving 1520 US respondents, we asked participants to compare two menus across six dimensions: (1) burger/sandwich patty type and its corresponding carbon footprint value, (2) calories, (3) protein, (4) price, (5) ingredient origin, and (6) farming method. Within each menu, the values for these dimensions varied randomly. Further, respondents were randomly assigned to three frames: a reference frame that highlighted the scientific rationale for pro-climate action, and treatment frames with a moral-secular and a moral-religious framing of pro-climate action. We found that moral appeals did not influence individuals to make low-carbon food choices. Across the entire sample, respondents tended to favor non-vegetarian options with higher carbon footprints. Those who prioritized taste were less inclined to choose the vegetarian menu. However, some subgroups did show a preference for the vegetarian menu, including women, those with pro-climate attitudes and prior exposure to a vegetarian diet, and those who considered the health impact of their food choices. In conclusion, it appears that moral appeals are unlikely to drive significant changes in individual food choices toward a more climate-friendly food system. Instead, dietary preferences are primarily shaped by individuals’ pre-existing climate attitudes and demographics.
This article exploits two newspaper archives to track economic policy uncertainty in Spain from 1905–1945. We find that the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936 was anticipated by a striking upward level shift of uncertainty in both newspapers. We study the reasons for this shift through a natural language processing method, which allows us to leverage expert opinion to track specific issues in our newspaper archives. We find a strong empirical link between increasing uncertainty and the rise of divisive political issues like socio-economic conflict. This holds even when exploiting content differences between the two newspapers in our corpus.
This study investigates the relationships among religiosity, consumption, and life satisfaction of Muslim workers in Padang, West Sumatera, Indonesia. Four hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed to Muslim workers. The respondents are classified into hijra and non-hijra groups. Ideology, rituals, intellectual capacity, consequential and experimental aspects were used as indicators to quantify the independent variable, namely religiosity. Consumption is a moderating variable, and life satisfaction represents the dependent variable. Consumption and life satisfaction are positive and significantly influenced by religiosity. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Overall, empirical evidence explains the significant impact of religiosity on the economic life of Muslim workers.
Religious communities are important providers of social insurance. We show that risk associated with oil dependence facilitated the proliferation of religious communities throughout the U.S. South during the twentieth century. Known oil abundance predicts higher rates of church membership, which are not driven by selective migration or local economic development. Consistent with a social insurance channel, greater oil price volatility increases effects, while greater access to credit, state-level social insurance, and private insurance crowd out effects. Religious communities limit spillovers of oil price shocks across sectors, reducing increases in unemployment following a negative shock by about 30 percent.
This paper provides an introduction to the special issue on culture, institutions, and religion in economic history. It surveys each paper and situates them in the broader literature.
High levels of income inequality can persist in society only if people accept the inequality as justified. To identify psychological predictors of people’s tendency to justify inequality, we retrained a pre-existing deep learning model to predict the extent to which World Values Survey respondents believed that income inequality is necessary. A feature importance analysis revealed multiple items associated with the importance of hard work as top predictors. As an emphasis on hard work is a key component of the Protestant Work Ethic, we formulated the hypothesis that the PWE increases acceptance of inequality. A correlational study found that the more people endorsed PWE, the less disturbed they were about factual statistics about wealth equality in the US. Two experiments found that exposing people to PWE items decreased their disturbance with income inequality. The findings indicate that machine learning models can be reused to generate viable hypotheses.
The article considers the issue of research of the current state and formation of directions of development of the market of motor transport transportation of the EU countries. The urgency of the topic is due to the development of the EU economy and its diversified structure. It is established that road transport is an important type of economic activity. When transport systems are efficient, they provide economic and social opportunities and benefits that lead to positive effects, such as increased market access, increased employment and additional investment. When transport systems are underdeveloped in terms of capacity and reliability, they can lead to economic costs, such as suppressed or untapped capacity, and reduce the quality of life. In addition, the impact of transport is not always predictable, and some unintended or unpredictable consequences may occur. The development of the road transport market is one of the important components of modern economies for their full existence, as road transport is one of the most mobile means of supplying raw materials, finished products at the current stage of EU development. The EU road haulage sector has developed very dynamically. It was found that the EU offers the world community a new product - the export of transit transport services. The creation and development of international transport corridors is necessary not only from a commercial point of view. Thanks to international transport corridors, it is possible to synchronize the exchange of goods between countries, reduce transportation costs and increase the possibility of developing transport infrastructure. Approaches to improving the efficiency of transport between EU member states and third countries on the example of road freight transport, taking into account the factor of transport infrastructure development, are proposed. The obtained results can be used in the process of analysis of the EU freight transport market, identification of key export-oriented and import-oriented freight transport groups, analysis of state export policy, formation of a national strategy for the development of the road transport market.
We hypothesize that there are two mechanisms by which religion can affect prosocial behaviors. Being reminded about religion can induce prosocial behaviors through an external, triggering effect. The underlying beliefs can have an effect through internal mechanisms. To untangle these competing effects, a lab-in-the-field experiment was conducted in West Africa in which we asked people participating in a survey if they would like to donate their participation fee to a local charity. We randomly assigned respondents a question asking about belief in heaven and hell. We also vary the donation price to test whether there are limits on the prosocial behaviors. We find that the trigger has no effect on the decision to donate, but that belief in heaven/hell has a positive, large, statistically significant effect on the likelihood of donations. Religious belief does encourage prosocial behavior but those effects dissipate as the opportunity cost of giving increases.
Publication of this Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Economics reflects the emergence of economics and religion as a new interdisciplinary field. Most of the questions addressed in the new interdisciplinary field and this volume have been discussed for many years in disciplines such as economics, sociology, development studies philosophy, theologyand history. What is new is bringing together these older discussions so that gainful trade in techniques and ideas can take place. The focus of this volume is the deeper intellectual issues at stake in the encounter between Christian theology and economics, but these issues are highly relevant to contemporary issues.
This essay critically evaluates the analytic literature concerned with causal connections between Islam and economic performance. It focuses on works since 1997, when this literature was last surveyed comprehensively. Among the findings are the following: Ramadan fasting by pregnant women harms prenatal development; Islamic charities mainly benefit the middle class; Islam affects educational outcomes less through Islamic schooling than through structural factors that handicap learning as a whole; Islamic finance has a negligible effect on Muslim financial behavior; and low generalized trust depresses Muslim trade. The last feature reflects the Muslim world's delay in transitioning from personal to impersonal exchange. The delay resulted from the persistent simplicity of the private enterprises formed under Islamic law. Weak property rights reinforced the private sector's stagnation by driving capital from commerce to rigid waqfs. Waqfs limited economic development through their inflexibility and democratization by keeping civil society embryonic. Parts of the Muslim world conquered by Arab armies are especially undemocratic, which suggests that early Islamic institutions were particularly critical to the persistence of authoritarian patterns of governance. States have contributed to the persistence of authoritarianism by treating Islam as an instrument of governance. As the world started to industrialize, non-Muslim subjects of Muslim-governed states pulled ahead of their Muslim neighbors, partly by exercising the choice of law they enjoyed under Islamic law in favor of a Western legal system. © 2018 American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. All rights reserved.