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Human Capital and the Supply of Religion

Joseph Engelberg1; Raymond Fisman2; Jay C. Hartzell3; Christopher A. Parsons1

1 University of California San Diego · 2 Columbia University · 3 The University of Texas at Austin

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2016 open access

We study the role of labor inputs in religious attendance using data on Oklahoma Methodist congregations from 1961 to 2003. Pastors play a significant role in church growth: replacing a 25th percentile pastor with a 75th percentile one increases annual attendance growth by 3%. A pastor’s performance in his or her first church (largely the result of random assignment) predicts future performance, suggesting a causal effect of pastors on growth. The deployment of pastors by the church indicates efficient use of labor: low-performing pastors are more likely to be rotated or exit the sample, and high-performing pastors are moved to larger congregations.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00582
Volume
98 (3)
Pages
415-427
Language
en
Export
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