EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Calvin's reformation in Geneva: self and social signalling

Gilat Levy and Ronny Razin

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: As Weber (1904) recognized, Calvinistic beliefs about predestination may constitute a powerful incentive for good works; an individual wishes to receive assurances about her future prospects of salvation, and good works may provide a positive signal about such prospects. These beliefs can in turn create a social pressure to behave well, as good works can also signal to others that individuals belong to the “elect” and are therefore likely to behave well in social interactions. Moreover, the Consistory, an institution created by Calvin to monitor and publicize individuals’ behaviour, can allow for such social signalling. We analyze these self and social signalling incentives, and show how religions affect levels of cooperation and coordination.

JEL-codes: Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/54256/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Calvin's Reformation in Geneva: Self and Social Signalling (2014) Downloads
Working Paper: Calvin's reformation in Geneva: self and social signalling (2014) Downloads
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:ehl:lserod:54256

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager (lseresearchonline@lse.ac.uk).

 
Page updated 2024-12-28
Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:54256