The DOI matches its Crossref record; 30 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Consequences of Religious Market Structure: Adam Smith and the Economics of Religion
Abstract
In a largely ignored chapter of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith laid the foundation for an economic theory of religious institutions. Smith emphasized the importance of market structure, describing in detail the differences between state-sponsored religious monopolies and competitive religious markets. This article builds on Smith's discussion both theoretically and empirically. The author formalizes the concept of a religious market, defends its relevance, and derives predictions concerning the observable effects of religious market structure. Data on the religious characteristics of 17 developed, Western nations confirm Smith's claim that monopoly and government regulation impede religious markets just as they do secular ones. Across Protestant nations, rates of church attendance and religious belief are substantially higher in highly competitive markets than in markets monopolized by established churches.
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Cites
(2012) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.102.2.i · Cited by 13,709
Journal of economic literature
Armstrong, J. S. (1996) · International Journal of Forecasting · doi:10.1016/0169-2070(96)88197-0 · Cited by 9,923
(1986) · Journal of Economic Literature · Cited by 2,705
Religion and the Decline of Magic
(2017) · Macat Library eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781912281657 · Cited by 2,121
Stigler, G. J. (1964) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/258853 · Cited by 1,760
Introduction to the Economics of Religion
Iannaccone, L. R. (1998) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Cited by 1,613
Self-citationMueller, D. C. (1989) · Cited by 1,284
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Smith, A. (2002) · doi:10.1002/9780470755679.ch1 · Cited by 1,108
High school achievement : public, Catholic, and private schools compared
Coleman, J. S., Hoffer, T. B., & Kilgore, S. B. (1982) · Basic Books · Cited by 969
Laslett, P. (2002) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203130070 · Cited by 603
Cited by
Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511791017 · Cited by 1,795
Religion and Economic Growth across Countries
Barro, R. J., & McCleary, R. M. (2003) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.1177/000312240306800505 · Cited by 1,445
A Supply-Side Reinterpretation of the "Secularization" of Europe
Stark, R., & Iannaccone, L. R. (1994) · Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion · doi:10.2307/1386688 · Cited by 915
Self-citationMcCleary, R. M., & Barro, R. J. (2006) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.20.2.49 · Cited by 894
The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China
Yang, F. (2006) · The Sociological Quarterly · doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2006.00039.x · Cited by 481
Metadata
- Authors
- IANNACCONE, L. R.
- Venue
- Rationality and Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1991-04
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 156-177
- ISSN
- 1043-4631 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7358
- OpenAlex
- W2146383051
- Cited by
- 615
- References
- 30
- FWCI
- 37.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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