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Two Sides of a Medal: the Changing Relationship between Religious Diversity and Religiosity

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  • Matthias Opfinger

Abstract

Religious Market Theory assigns basic market principles to the market for religion. The derived supply-side model proposes that religiosity is higher on a competitive market, characterized by high religious diversity. Churches will provide higher quality goods compared to monopolistic churches. The demand-side model, originating from the Secularization Hypothesis, suggests that the establishment of new churches casts doubt on the existing religion, which reduces overall religiosity. I find a negative linear relationship between religious diversity and religiosity which supports the demand-side model. However, high levels of income and democracy mitigate this effect. For high levels of education and immigration, the relationship even turns to positive. The demand-side model seems to dominate in less-developed countries. This effect appears to vanish in the most industrialized countries.

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  • Matthias Opfinger, 2014. "Two Sides of a Medal: the Changing Relationship between Religious Diversity and Religiosity," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(4), pages 523-548, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:72:y:2014:i:4:p:523-548
    DOI: 10.1080/00346764.2014.958900
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    Cited by:

    1. Lydia Maidl & Ann-Kathrin Seemann & Eckhard Frick & Harald Gündel & Piret Paal, 2022. "Leveraging Spirituality and Religion in European For-profit-organizations: a Systematic Review," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 23-53, April.
    2. Matthias Opfinger, 2014. "‘United in Diversity’---Does Social Diversity Increase Subjective?," Research Papers in Economics 2014-10, University of Trier, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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