Religious Market Competition in a Richer World

In: Economica, Band 77, Heft 305, S. 148-171

Abstract

Economic growth has not led to a decline in religion despite past predictions that it would. Using a formal model of religious competition, I show how economic growth produces counteracting effects on religious activity in an open religious market, and that it has little effect in a religious market that is already secularized due to regulations that prohibit religious competition or in a highly religious market with regulations that inhibit secular activities. Theories predicting the decline of religion due to rising opportunity costs of religious demand and supply ignore countervailing influences.