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Does Religious Activity Affect Childbearing Decisions? The Case of Georgia

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  • Lasha Lanchava

Abstract

In response to the problem of shrinking birthrates in the country, in October 2007, the head of the Georgian Orthodox church announced that he would personally baptize any third and further baby born to Orthodox families from that time. This study uses the initiative as a natural experiment to explore the economic consequences of religious activity. This analysis uses individual level survey data from the Caucasus Resource Research Center (CRRC) Georgia on fertility before and after the initiative for Orthodox Christians (treatment group) and Non- Orthodox Christians (control group) population to identify the effect of the church leader’s promise on birth rates. Difference-in-differences estimation procedure is employed to examine the potential causal effect. This analysis does not find evidence that the church initiative had an effect on fertility.

Suggested Citation

  • Lasha Lanchava, 2014. "Does Religious Activity Affect Childbearing Decisions? The Case of Georgia," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp521, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    • Handle: RePEc:cer:papers:wp521
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Seung-Hun Chung & Neha Deopa & Kritika Saxena & Lyman Stone, 2025. "Religiously inspired baby boom: evidence from Georgia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-31, March.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General

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