The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion

by Rachel M. McCleary

Overview

This is a one-of-kind volume bringing together leading scholars in the economics of religion for the first time. The treatment of topics is interdisciplinary, comparative, as well as global in nature. Scholars apply the economics of religion approach to contemporary issues such as immigrants in the United States and ask historical questions such as why did Judaism as a religion promote investment in education?

The economics of religion applies economic concepts (for example, supply and demand) and models of the market to the study of religion. Advocates of the economics of religion approach look at ways in which the religion market influences individual choices as well as institutional development. For example, economists would argue that when a large denomination declines, the religion is not supplying the right kind of religious good that appeals to the faithful. Like firms, religions compete and supply goods. The economics of religion approach using rational choice theory, assumes that all human beings, regardless of their cultural context, their socio-economic situation, act rationally to further his/her ends.

The wide-ranging topics show the depth and breadth of the approach to the study of religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195390049
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/27/2011
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Rachel M. McCleary is Senior Research Fellow, Taubman Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Research Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute. McCleary's work is interdisciplinary with theoretical grounding in the fields of political science, sociology, and economics. Within these disciplines, she conducts research on the political economy of religion. Her research focuses on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary studies how religious beliefs and practices influence productivity, economic growth, and the maintenance of political institutions such as democracy.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors

Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: The Economics of Religion as a Field of Inquiry
Rachel M. McCleary, Harvard University

Part II: Religion and Human Capital
Chapter 2: Religion, Human Capital Investments, and the Family in the United States
Evelyn L. Lehrer, University of Illinois at Chicago

Chapter 3: Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European
History
Maristella Botticini, Università Bocconi, and Zvi Eckstein, Tel Aviv University

Chapter 4: Islam and Human Capital Formation: Evidence from Pre-Modern Science
Eric Chaney, Harvard University

Chapter 5: The Effects of the Protestant Reformation on Human Capital
Sascha O. Becker University of Stirling and Ludger Woessman, University of Munich

Chapter 6: Religion and the Spread of Human Capital and Political Institutions:
Christian Missions as a Quasi-Natural Experiment
Robert D. Woodberry, University of Texas at Austin

Part III: The Nature of Religious Economies
Chapter 7: Towards Better Measures of Supply and Demand for Testing Theories of
Religious Participation
Dan Olson, Purdue University

Chapter 8: Immigrants, Migration, and Religious Economies
Darren E. Sherkat, University of Southern Illinois

Chapter 9: On the (Lack of) Stability of Communes: An Economic Perspective
Ran Abramitzky, Stanford University

Chapter 10: The Economics of Sainthood (A Preliminary Investigation)
Robert J. Barro, Harvard University, Rachel M. McCleary, Harvard University, and Alexander McQuoid, Columbia University
Chapter 11: On the Socioeconomic Consequences of Religious Strife and Coexistence
Murat Iyigun, University of Colorado

Part IV: Regulation of the Religion Market
Chapter 12: Religion under Communism: State Regulation, Atheist Competition, and the
Dynamics of Supply and Demand
Steven Pfaff, University of Washington

Chapter 13: Rethinking the Study of Religious Markets
Daniel M. Hungerman, Notre Dame

Chapter 14: Religion and Civil Liberties in the United States
Anthony Gill, University of Washington

Chapter 15: Secularization and Economic Models of Religious Behavior
Steve Bruce, University of Aberdeen

Part V: Economic Aspects of Religion
Chapter 16: The Political Economy of the Medieval Church
Robert B. Ekelund, Robert F. Hébert, Auburn University, and Robert D. Tollison, Clemson University

Chapter 17: Funding the Faiths: Toward a Theory of Religious Finance
Laurence R. Iannaccone, Chapman University, and Feler Bose, Alma College

Part VI: Data Sets on Religion
Chapter 18: Data and Directions for Research in the Economics of Religion
Roger Finke, Pennsylvania State University, and Christopher D. Bader, Baylor University

Chapter 19: International Religious Demography: An Overview of Sources and
Methodology
Todd M. Johnson, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Brian Grim, Pew Forum

Index

Editorial Reviews

"The Economics of Religion is spreading fast, leaving it its wake true believers and skeptics—but few agnostics. Professor McCleary has assembled a lively collection of papers that will inform and entertain them all!"—Eli Berman, Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego and author of Radical, Religious and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism

"This volume provides a valuable overview of recent economic thinking about religion. Refreshingly devoid of the hype and hyperbole that have marred much earlier work on this subject, these chapters offer a clear-eyed view of how economic ideas can be used and misused to study religion. They show us a productive way forward for the economics of religion."—Mark Chaves, Professor of Sociology, Religion, and Divinity, Duke University

"The editor and authors of this handbook bring together in one place what social science has learned about the religious marketplace in the last twenty years. The compilation is both useful and impressive. Scholars from sociology, economics, history, and religious studies have each contributed to our understanding of religious institutions and peoples' engagement with them. Most chapters sketch an agenda for future research."—Michael Hout, Natalie Cohen Professor of Sociology & Demography University of California, Berkeley and co-author of Century of Difference: How America Changed Over the Past One Hundred Years

"Widely considered irrelevant to economics for much of the twentieth century, religion is now a subject that scholars study using the empirical and theoretical tools of modern economics. This collection of essays by a stellar group of scholars offers an excellent introduction to the main themes, claims, controversies, and methods of the expanding field known as the economics of religion. At a time of rising interreligious tensions and of increasing religiosity in certain places, the book fills a major need. It should be of interest to a wide range of educated readers, including social scientists, humanists, and policy makers."—Timur Kuran, Professor of Economics and Political Science and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University

"The application of economic models to religious behavior has become a growth industry in the social sciences. Rachel McCleary has provided an indispensible guide to a variety of perspectives on this important set of issues. McCleary has assembled an all-star cast, and has produced a useful and important resource for scholars interested in this burgeoning subfield. The essays in this volume will provide an excellent introduction to students approaching this subject for the first time, and will also be quite instrumental in advancing state of the art insights and findings for specialists."—Ted G. Jelen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

From the Publisher