 Marx meets Weber: The dissolution of communes and the rise of religious public goods in ChinaShukang Xiao and Pinghan Liang World Development, 2025, vol. 194, issue C Abstract: Cultural behaviors can be shaped and preserved by economic institutions. We examine the causal impact of the rural decollectivization reform in China that took place after 1978 on the supply of religious public goods. A staggered difference-in-differences model that analyzes the timing of reform implementation in 1,114 counties finds that the reform resulted in a surge in religious activities in religious sites. Further evidence suggests that counties with a lower intensity of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and a larger income growth experienced a greater impact of the reform. Moreover, lineage associations, being more religious and serving as a critical tool in mobilizing individuals, could enhance the impact of the reform. We argue that in the commune system before the reform, the demand for religions as well as its supply were not fully expressed and the reform increased people’s economic autonomy and resources for participating in religious activities. Our study offers a political economy explanation for the rise of religion in China’s economic transition after 1978. Keywords: Land reform; Institutional change; Religion; Public goods; Culture (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:194:y:2025:i:c:s0305750x25001561 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107071 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
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