Economics and Religion

Carmel Chiswick

No 4868, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the relationship between economics and religion. It first considers the effects of economic incentives in the religious marketplace on consumers’ demand for "religion." It then shows how this demand affects religious institutions and generates a supply of religious goods and services. Other topics include the structure of this religious marketplace and the related "marketplace for ideas" in a religiously pluralistic society. Empirical evidence is summarized for the effects on selected economic behaviors of religious affiliation and intensity of belief or practice.

Keywords: human capital; religion; economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-hpe, nep-ltv and nep-soc
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Rhona C. Free (ed.), 21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook, Sage Publications: 2010

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp4868.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:iza:izadps:dp4868

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().