[the affects of religiosity and spirituality on human capital]

by

Effects of Religiosity and Spirituality on Human Capital



Introduction

The last two decades of the twentieth century saw an explosion of empirical as well as theoretical research into the relationship between religion and economic behavior. For the most part, this research ignores theological differences, focusing instead on behavioral differences associated with different religious identities. The causation runs both ways: Some studies analyze the effects of religious identity on various economic activities, and others analyze the effects of economic incentives on religious observances and institutions. Both of these lines of research have yielded strong results and have dramatically affected our understanding of the relationship between economics and religion. Prices and incomes are powerful incentives that invariably influence the actions of individuals, and the human capacity for creative rationalization contributes to the widespread evasion of costly behaviors, including costly religious strictures.

Before economics became a modern social science, casual observation generated many stereotypes about differences between religious groups regarding economic success, differences that were often attributed to differences in religious teachings. Today these arguments are viewed with skepticism. Some are based on stereotypes that do not stand up to empirical scrutiny. Others are based on an imperfect understanding of the religious teachings to which they refer. Recent research suggests that some of the most important differences between religious groups can be explained not directly, by the religious strictures themselves, but indirectly by intervening variables that affect the economic incentives faced by individuals.

Discussion

To provide an overview of this subject, this chapter begins with a consideration of the economic incentives affecting a consumer's decisions in the religious market-place—that is to say, the demand for “religion.” It will then look at how this demand affects religious institutions and generates a supply of religious goods and services. Other topics will include the structure of this religious marketplace, the related “marketplace for ideas” in a religiously pluralistic society, and religious human capital. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of empirical findings for the effects of religious affiliation and intensity of belief or practice on selected economic behaviors.

The Demand for Religion

From the perspective of an individual consumer, religious expression is an economic good that must compete with all other goods for a share of the resource budget. It is not a good in the material sense but rather an intangible for which people express a preference by their willingness to spend time and money on its acquisition. Nor is it a good that can be purchased in a consumption-ready form. It belongs to the category of economic goods that must be self-produced by each individual. The consumer may buy goods and services that contribute to this end but must spend his or her own time to use them in a way that creates a religious experience.

The theological aspects of any particular religion may be thought of as its technology, a set of “recipes” or blueprints for behaviors, expenditures, and beliefs that will produce the desired results. This gives the consumer a production ...