Why Hasn’t Economic Growth Killed Religion?

Michael McBride ()

No 50602, Working Papers from University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics

Abstract: Economic growth has not led to a decline in religion despite past predictions that it would. I use a formal model of religious competition to show how economic growth produces counteracting effects on religious participation in an open religious market, while economic growth will have little effect in a religious market that is already secularized due to religious regulations. Theories predicting the decline of religion due to rising opportunity costs of religious demand and supply ignore countervailing influences.

Keywords: Religion; Hotelling, entry deterrence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 D40 L10 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2005-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irv:wpaper:050602

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