Laurence R. Iannaccone, "Introduction to the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Sep., 1998), pp. 1465-1495
On May 25, 2011, at 4:11 PM, Catherine Driscoll wrote:
> Thanks, Doug, that made my day. And we have a postgrad student working on religion who will love it.
>
> C
>
> [from a paper on the economics of religion by Laurence R. Iannaccone]
>
> Within this provocative model, individuals allocate their time and goods among religious and secular commodities so as to maximize lifetime and afterlife utility. Azzi and Ehrenberg posit "afterlife consumption" as the primary goal of religious participation, an assumption that implies a strong restriction on the way religious commodities enter household utility functions. Formally, households are assumed to maximize an intertemporal utility function which depends upon both (secular) consumption, Zt, in each period and expected afterlife consumption, A...