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Chatting at Church: Information Diffusion through Religious Networks

David M. A. Murphy1; Vesall Nourani2; David R. Lee3

1 Colgate University · 2 University of Chicago · 3 Cornell University

The Review of Economics and Statistics 2022

This paper shows the causal relationship between mutual religious association and the formation of social ties. We analyze dyadic relationships and show that joint attendance at a religious institution (RI) increases the probability of sharing information with and trusting a peer. We use a novel spatial instrumental variable strategy that combines insights from homestead inheritance institutions with triangular distances between peers and RI locations within villages in Kenya. We find that shared attendance at an RI increases the likelihood of receiving advice from a peer by 30 percentage points, demonstrating the strong impact of weak ties formed through social spaces.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00969
Volume
104 (3)
Pages
449-464
Language
en
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