Which Countries Have State Religions?

Abstract

ziarg, and participants in various seminars.

God and Governance: Development, State Capacity, and the Regulation of Religion

“…In keeping with the instinct that GDP's impact diminishes at higher values, we log per capita GDP as the primary independent variable of interest in this analysis. GDP per capita is obviously only one indicator of economic development, but it has been shown to correlate closely with individual religiosity (Norris and Inglehart ), and is used in other examinations of the relationship between development and institutions of secularism (Barro and McCleary ; Fox and Flores ). Secularization theory's key assumptions regarding the impact of development on individual religiosity are clearly linked to increases in per capita GDP, and thus this indicator provides a solid baseline of comparison of the impact of development on state regulation of religion.…”

“…When they explore the origins of state regulation, religious market theorists tend to argue that pluralism, not economic development, facilitates the maintenance of religious liberty, understood as the absence of state intervention in religious affairs. Finke (), Finke and Stark (), Iannaccone (), Barro and McCleary (), and Gill (1998, ) all provide models that trace state policies regarding religion at least in part to distributions of religious adherence. In particular, as denominational fragmentation increases, the costs of repression also increase and the benefits of protecting religious liberty seem more appealing to elite bargainers.…”

Religious Conversion in 40 Countries

“…Average years of school attainment in 1990 for the adult population aged 25 and over come from Barro and Lee (2001) 14 . The dummy variables for Communism in 1970, having a state religion in 1970, and having government regulation of the religion market in the 1970s come from Barro and McCleary (2005). The regulation variable, an extension of Chaves and Cann (1992), was based on whether the government appointed or approved religious leaders.…”

Luther and Suleyman*

“…1 In contrast, the birth, survival, and growth of Protestantism in the sixteenth century and subsequently of its various offshoots, such as Zwinglianism, Calvinism, and Anabaptism, came to represent a watershed in European history. That religious pluralism generates competition between different denominations is a direct corollary of the spatial competition model of Hotelling (1929) applied to the religion market and espoused more recently by Barro and McCleary (2005). But how did Lutheranism and its offshoots proliferate whereas previous reform attempts failed?…”

“…And that is what makes the work below a contribution to the economics of religion. The main focus of some papers in this strand is religion and culture in general (e.g., North [1990]; Iannaccone [1992]; Temin [1997]; Glaeser and Sacerdote [2002]; Fernandez, Fogli, and Olivetti [2004]; Barro and McCleary [2005]; Greif [2006]; Guiso, Sapienza, andZingales [2003, 2006]; Spolaore and Wacziarg [2006]; and Fernandez, Fogli, and Olivetti [2004]). Other papers in this line emphasize how individual behavior and the evolution of various institutions are driven by adherence to a specific religion, such as Judaism, Islam, or different denominations within Christianity (e.g., Berman [2000]; Kuran [2004aKuran [ , 2005; Botticini andEckstein [2005, 2007]; and Arrunada [2005]).…”