This paper analyses the decisions made by ministers of the Church of Scotland regarding whether to leave and join the Free Church, or remain within the establishment, at the time of the 1843 Disruption. Using a newly constructed dataset drawn from a range of hitherto unconnected sources, it...

Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900? Empirical studies using modern data mostly contradict the traditional view that education was a leading source of the seismic social phenomenon of secularization. We construct a unique panel dataset of...

Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900? Empirical studies using modern data mostly contradict the traditional view that education was a leading source of the seismic social phenomenon of secularization. We construct a unique panel dataset of...

In this paper I consider how individuals allocate their time between church attendance (and other religious activities) and secular leisure activities. Moreover individuals use a cognitive style, which is either intuitive-believing or reflective-analytical. I assume that the full benefit from...

In this study we investigate the relationship between religious and charitable giving. We test how income, the tax-price of giving and the German church tax, differently affect charitable donations of church members, individuals leaving church and nonchurch members. We find crowding in between...

Diese Arbeit setzt sich mit der These auseinander, dass die Demokratisierung der Wirtschaft die Schlüsselaufgabe unserer Zeit sei und wie dieser Demokratisierungsprozess gestaltet werden kann. Die Gesellschaft ist strukturiert in autonomer Selbststeuerung und integriert in übergeordnete...

In this study we examine the effect of church tax on the church membership decision using Finnish data. We present both descriptive statistics from an opting-out website and econometric evidence exploiting the panel structure of a large individual-level data set. Our descriptive analysis shows...

Why do Black American consumers continue to reflect higher rates of church attendance than the remainder of the U.S. population, and continue to obtain a significant amount of services from Black churches? When we hypothesize that the implicit prices of services that are produced by Black...

Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900? Empirical studies using modern data mostly contradict the traditional view that education was a leading source of the seismic social phenomenon of secularization. We construct a unique panel dataset of...

We show that Eastern Orthodox believers are less happy compared to those of Catholic and Protestant faith using data covering more than 100 countries around the world. Consistent with the happiness results, we also find that relative to Catholics, Protestants and non-believers, those of Eastern...