Where and when to pray? Optimal mass planning and efficient resource allocation in the church

Alexander Martin and Martin Weibelzahl

No 06/2014, FAU Discussion Papers in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics

Abstract: We will present a theoretical model for an integrated planning of Eucharistic masses and Liturgies of the Word assuming different priests, assistant priests and lay persons. This all-integer vector optimization problem can be seen as an economic, spacial and inter-temporal resource allocation problem taking the challenges in the context of parish clusters into account. Having provided some theoretical insights into the mass planning problem, numerical results show the relevance of our model for an efficient decision-making in religious practice. We demonstrate that innovative team work arrangements in the church can substantially improve the efficiency, fairness and acceptance of mass allocations.

Keywords: Allocation; Resources; Church; Job Design and Cooperation; Labor and Personnel Management; Normative Criteria; Optimization Models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 D63 L31 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/98403/1/788910167.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:062014

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in FAU Discussion Papers in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().