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Religious Participation versus Shopping: What Makes People Happier?

Author

Listed:
  • Cohen-Zada, Danny

    (Ben Gurion University)

  • Sander, William

    (DePaul University)

Abstract

In this paper, we first explore how an exogenous increase in the opportunity cost of religious participation affects individuals' religious participation and reported happiness using data from the General Social Survey. The exogenous shift in the cost of religious participation is a result of repealing of so-called blue laws which restrict retail activity on Sundays. We find that repealing blue laws causes a significant decline in the level of religious participation of white women and in their happiness. We do not observe any significant decline in reported happiness of other groups whose religious participation was not significantly affected by repeal. We also use repeal as an instrumental variable (IV) for church attendance and provide direct evidence that church attendance has a significant positive effect on happiness, especially for women.

Suggested Citation

  • Cohen-Zada, Danny & Sander, William, 2010. "Religious Participation versus Shopping: What Makes People Happier?," IZA Discussion Papers 5198, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5198
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Freedom, rationality & religion
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2010-10-11 19:25:51
    2. Diversifying mental states
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2013-02-02 19:39:27
    3. Some benefits of religion
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2013-02-10 19:54:16

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    Cited by:

    1. Barış K. Yörük, 2013. "The Impact of Charitable Subsidies on Religious Giving and Attendance: Evidence from Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1708-1721, December.
    2. Daniel M. Hungerman, 2011. "Substitution and Stigma: Evidence on Religious Competition from the Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal," NBER Working Papers 17589, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dara N. Lee, 2011. "The Impact of Repealing Sunday Closing Laws on Educational Attainment," Working Papers 1117, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    blue laws; religious participation; happiness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K10 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - General (Constitutional Law)
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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