Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/31416 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Claremont Colleges Working Papers No. 2006-02
Publisher: 
Claremont McKenna College, Department of Economics, Claremont, CA
Abstract: 
We construct and estimate an economic model of religious giving. We employ a dynamic consumer optimization model with mortality in which intra-temporal utility stems from both consumption and religious contributions. Individuals also decide how to allocate resources between religious contributions (which have both a this-life consumption value and an after-life investment value) and other consumption expenditures. If religious contributions do not have an after-life investment value, the ratio of contributions to consumption expenditures should be unrelated to the probability of death. However, if there is an investment value from religious giving, individuals should allocate a greater share of their income to religious contributions as their probability of death increases. We estimate the model using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey on the consumption and religious contribution patterns of a repeated cross-section of households and of a synthetic cohort panel. We find strong evidence that individuals behave as if religious contributions have a value in the after-life, in a manner consistent with the after life-cycle model. The estimates of the structural parameters of the model also imply that while after-life investment considerations (i.e. impending death) are an important determinant of the life-cycle profile of religious contributions, within-life (i.e. religious consumption) factors pin down a household's average level of religious contributions over a lifetime.
Subjects: 
God
Life-cycle Consumption
Religion
Tithing
JEL: 
H1
H5
H8
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
340.84 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.