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The Determinants of Church Attendance and Religious Human Capital in Germany: Evidence from Panel Data

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Author Info
Guido Heineck

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Abstract

This paper explores determinants of church attendance and the formation of 'religious human capital' in Germany within a Becker-style allocation-of-time framework. The analysis is based on data derived from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Taking advantage of the longitudinal structure of the data, we are able to control for unobservable heterogeneity by applying a random-effects ordered probit model to estimate separate attendance equations as well as 'faith intensity' equations for males and females. The results suggest support for previous findings based on British and North American data that age is a strong predictor for church attendance. Economic variables only weakly account for some of the variation inasmuch as high non-labour income releases time that can be devoted to religious activities. Results for differences in partnership status point to the complementary character of religious experience, whereas the findings for spouses with different religions are more ambiguous. Having at hand a presumably unique situation in the regional structure of religious traditions, we find, not too surprisingly, that strength of belief is much lower in the formerly atheistic East Germany. It is however not clear-cut that North-South or Protestant-Catholic divides exist in religious participation.

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Paper provided by DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research in its series Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin with number 263.

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Length: 23 p.
Date of creation: 2001
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Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp263

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Related research
Keywords: Religious behaviour; allocation of time; random-effects ordered probit model;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
J29 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Other
Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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  1. Sullivan, Dennis H, 1985. "Simultaneous Determination of Church Contributions and Church Attendance," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 309-20, April.
  2. Sawkins, John W & Seaman, Paul T & Williams, Hector C S, 1997. "Church Attendance in Great Britain: An Ordered Logit Approach," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 125-34, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Ehrenberg, Ronald G, 1977. "Household Allocation of Time and Religiosity: Replication and Extension," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(2), pages 415-23, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Iannaccone, L.R., 1989. "Sacrifice And Stigma Reducing Free-Riding In Cults, Communes, And Other Collectives," Papers e-89-29, Stanford - Hoover Institution.
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  5. William N. Evans & Edward Montgomery, 1994. "Education and Health: Where There's Smoke There's an Instrument," NBER Working Papers 4949, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Neuman, Shoshana, 1986. "Religious Observance within a Human Capital Framework: Theory and Application," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 18(11), pages 1193-1202, November.
  7. Zaleski, Peter A & Zech, Charles E, 1995. "The Effect of Religious Market Competition on Church Giving," Review of Social Economy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 350-67, Fall.
  8. Smith, Ian & Sawkins, John W & Seaman, Paul T, 1998. "The Economics of Religious Participation: A Cross-Country Study," Kyklos, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(1), pages 25-43.
  9. Berggren, Niclas, 1997. "Rhetoric or reality? An economic analysis of the effects of religion in Sweden," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 571-596. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Butler, J S & Moffitt, Robert, 1982. "A Computationally Efficient Quadrature Procedure for the One-Factor Multinomial Probit Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 761-64, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Johannes Schwarze & Hanfried H. Andersen & Silke Anger, 2000. "Self-Rated Health and Changes in Self-Rated Health as Predictors of Mortality: First Evidence from German Panel Data," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 203, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  12. Azzi, Corry & Ehrenberg, Ronald G, 1975. "Household Allocation of Time and Church Attendance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(1), pages 27-56, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Laurence R. Iannaccone, 1998. "Introduction to the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1465-1495, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Per-Ola Maneschiöld & Bengt Haraldsson, 2007. "Religious Norms and Labour Supply of Married Women in Sweden," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 41-56, Spring. [Downloadable!]
  2. Men-Andri Benz & Egon Franck & Urs Meister, 2005. "Strategic Choice of Celibacy in the Catholic Church," Working Papers 0042, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU). [Downloadable!]
  3. Men-Andri Benz & Reto Foellmi & Egon Franck & Urs Meister, 2009. "Should the Catholic Church abolish the rule of Celibacy?," Working Papers 0115, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU). [Downloadable!]
  4. Esa Mangeloja, 2003. "Application of Economic Concepts on Religious Behavior," Others 0310003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  5. Pablo Branas-Garza, 2004. "Church attendance in Spain (1930-1992): Gender differences and secularization," Economics Bulletin, Economics Bulletin, vol. 26(1), pages 1-9. [Downloadable!]
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