Barro and McCleary look at differential investment in education across types of Protestantism. They find that literacy is enhanced more by Mainline Protestant schools then by Other Protestant schools and that Catholic schools have the weakest relation with literacy, likely because the ouster of...

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, since becoming Pope Francis in March 2013, is focusing on martyrdom in the Roman Catholic Church.

Barro and McCleary interpret the lowering of saint-making criteria combined with a geographic broadening of candidates as an intentional effort on the part of the Catholic Church hierarchy to universalize its relevance. More specifically, the Catholic Church - the world's longest-lasting...

"The Catholic Church has been making saints for centuries, typically in a two-stage process featuring beatification and canonization. We analyze determinants of rates of beatification and canonization (for non-martyrs) over time and across six world regions. The research uses a recently...