> [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...
Actually, once you start thinking this way, the Arrow-Debreu model has a lot in common with Calvinist Protestantism: all future trades from here to Judgment Day were predestined In the Beginning by our Lord the complete set of Futures Markets. Just as today's contracts predict future quantities in Arrow-Debreu, today's individual wealth is a sign of future election in Calvinism. We came into this world with nothing but tastes, technologies and endowments, and it is certain we can take nothing out. Amen.
SA