Economic Approach To Religion, An

420 Pages·2022·18.915 MB·English

by  Michael McBride

AN ECONOMIC
APPROACH TO RELIGION
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AN ECONOMIC
APPROACH TO RELIGION
MICHAEL MCBRIDE
University of California, Irvine, USA
World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI • TOKYO
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Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McBride, Michael, 1973– author.
Title: An economic approach to religion / Michael McBride, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Description: Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, [2023] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022020922 | ISBN 9789811259548 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9789811259555 (ebook for institutions) | ISBN 9789811259562 (ebook for individuals)
Subjects: LCSH: Religion--Economic aspects. | Economics--Religious aspects.
Classification: LCC HB72 .M327 2023 | DDC 201/.73--dc23/eng/20220602
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020922
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2023 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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Preface
Religion is ubiquitous. A church in Dallas holds a religious service at an
outdoor park so its members can worship with their dogs. A business trav-
eler in Johannesburg downloads a software application to their mobile
phone so they can read a Jewish religious text. Kazakhstan’s Supreme
Court rules that a law that forbids certain religious groups from distribut-
ing theological literature, maintaining places of worship, and accepting
monetary donations is unconstitutional. Almost half of Americans report
attending a religious service at least once a month, dedicating time and
money to religious pursuits rather than other activities, and about half of
all monetary donations to American charitable organizations are funneled
to and through religiously affiliated organizations.
Why is religion so pervasive? Why do individuals donate so much
time, energy, and other resources to religious groups? What factors affect
religious participation? How do religious groups succeed? How do they
compete with one another? Why are individuals in some countries more
religious than individuals in other countries? What is the future of
religion?
This book provides an introduction to how economic analysis is used
to answer these and other questions about religion. That is, this book pro-
vides a non-technical introduction to the blossoming field of the econom-
ics of religion. The mathematics and statistics used by researchers appear
in places in the book but are generally avoided. Both theory and evidence
are included, but the focus leans more toward theories. This choice
reflects my own specialty as a researcher as well as an intent to provide a
coherent conceptual framework within which to understand the larger
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b4641 An Economic Approach to Religion 6"×9"
vi An Economic Approach to Religion
body of theoretical and empirical research. A solid grounding in the con-
cepts enables an individual to access the larger literature on the economics
of religion and to evaluate the value of the evidence. The topics covered
herein represent many of the important issues examined in the literature,
but they in no way constitute an exhaustive treatment of a field that con-
tinues to grow at a fast pace. A few topics that are less prominent in the
literature but by my assessment fit naturally within the conceptual frame-
work of the field of the economics of religion are included.
Though this book is not a textbook strictly speaking, it was written so
that it could be easily incorporated into classroom settings. It could serve
as the primary text for an economics of religion course like the lower-
division course I have taught annually at the University of California,
Irvine since 2006. I supplement my course with readings, including news-
paper articles about current religion-related events. I place links to many
of these articles on the website I have maintained for the class at http://
thereligiousmarketplace.blogspot.com/. Readers of this book are welcome
to visit that website. This book could also be used in an upper-division or
graduate course on the economics of religion, in which case this text
would provide a foundation for a deeper dive into a reading list provided
by the instructor. At the end of each chapter, I provide a short list of read-
ings that can be used as part of that deeper dive. The selection of readings
is eclectic because it intends to provide readers with a wide sampling of
related ideas. Readings that are marked with an asterisk (*) use quantita-
tive methods that require some background in economics, game theory,
mathematics, statistics, or econometrics. Those without an asterisk have
content that should be accessible to any audience even if they contain
some details that are more advanced. This book could also be a supple-
mental text for other economics courses in which the teacher seeks to
draw examples of how economic analysis can be applied to the study of
religion. Finally, the book can provide an introduction to the economic
approach to religion to readers outside of the field of economics or even
outside of the academy altogether. It could be included in a humanities or
social sciences survey course on approaches to the study of religion. To
help readers of all backgrounds, key terms are italicized when first intro-
duced in the text and then listed in a glossary at the end of the book for
ease of reference.
When teaching my introductory course, I have found it important to
clarify on the first day of class what the economics of religion is and what
it is not. As understood in the social sciences, the economics of religion is
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6"×9" b4641 An Economic Approach to Religion
Preface vii
the application of economic theory (also called rational choice theory) and
empirical methods (statistics, econometrics, experiments) to the study of
religion and religious behavior. The same analytical tools that are used to
study consumer choice, firm behavior, group conflict, and other topics in
economics are applied to the specific area of religion. The economics of
religion is therefore not the theological study of the economy or of con-
sumer behavior, which we might call religious economics. Nor is it a nar-
row study of religious group’s finances. How religious groups raise funds
is of interest, but it is not the central focus. Finally, the economic approach
cannot be used to assess the merits of one religious group’s teachings and
practices over another. Providing this disambiguation at the beginning of
the course helps the students grasp the material more quickly and prevents
unnecessary distractions.
Most importantly, this book’s goal is to demonstrate how the tools of
economics help us to explain and understand the rich variety of religious
behaviors and expressions. My own research on the economics of religion
has always sought to enhance that understanding. There is also a very dif-
ferent half of the field of the economics of religion in which researchers
treat religion not as the phenomenon to be explained but rather as the
force that influences social, economic, and political institutions and eco-
nomic development. Such work comprises an important and growing lit-
erature, and a review of such work needs to receive its own treatment. The
focus in this book is on religious behavior as the phenomenon to be
explained, not religion as the explanatory force.
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About the Author
Michael McBride is Professor of Economics,
Religious Studies, and Logic and Philosophy of
Science (courtesy) at the University of California,
Irvine. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from
Yale University in 2002. His research, which uses
game theory and experimental methods to study
collective action, conflict, and religion, has appeared
in various journals across multiple disciplines. He
currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal
of Experimental and Behavioral Economics and as
Director of the Experimental Social Science Laboratory. His course on the
economics of religion has been taught annually at UC Irvine since 2006.
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