IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lmu/muenec/1186.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Konsum im Jenseits?

Author

Listed:
  • Schlicht, Ekkehart

Abstract

Many contributions to the economics of religion postulate an "afterlife consumption motive." People are assumed to maximize total utility--including afterlife utility. This essay argues that the approach is unsatifactory for several reasons. First, many regularities in religious participation may be explained by ordinary consumption theory without invoking an afterlife; second, there exist religions that do not postulate an afterlife, and there are religions that suppose an afterlife yet do not allow men to influence their fate in the hereafter by good deeds; and third, if afterlife consumption were the foundation for religious demand, we would observe an inflation of promises about afterlife bliss, brought about by competition among the religions. It is proposed to follow David Hume (1775) and see religious demand as originating from the desire of human beings to understand the world and justify their action. This religious motive ("quest for sense") can explain the emergence of ideas about an afterlife and afterlife consumption in monotheistic religions and permits to understand why an inflation of afterlife promises does not occur.

Suggested Citation

  • Schlicht, Ekkehart, 2006. "Konsum im Jenseits?," Discussion Papers in Economics 1186, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:1186
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1186/1/Schlicht_Jenseits_rev-DP.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laurence Iannaccone & Eli Berman, 2006. "Religious extremism: The good, the bad, and the deadly," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 109-129, July.
    2. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pavol Minarik, 2022. "The persistence of opposition in an oppressive regime: The case of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia," Rationality and Society, , vol. 34(2), pages 218-236, May.
    2. Panu Poutvaara & Andreas Wagener, 2010. "The invisible hand plays dice: multiple equilibria in sects markets," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 483-502, December.
    3. Pavol Minárik, 2013. "Ekonomie náboženství a její relevance pro ekonomy ve střední Evropě [Economics of Religion and its Relevance for Economists in Central Europe]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2013(5), pages 691-704.
    4. Soldatos, Gerasimos T., 2014. "On the Religion-Public Policy Correlation," MPRA Paper 60859, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Raphaël Franck & Laurence Iannaccone, 2014. "Religious decline in the 20th century West: testing alternative explanations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 385-414, June.
    6. Sriya Iyer, 2016. "The New Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 395-441, June.
    7. Paul Shea, 2019. "The Macroeconomics of Pascal’s Wager," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 481-496, October.
    8. Paul Frijters & Juan D. Barón, 2012. "The Cult of Theoi: Economic Uncertainty and Religion," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(s1), pages 116-136, June.
    9. Coşgel, Metin M. & Miceli, Thomas J. & Rubin, Jared, 2012. "The political economy of mass printing: Legitimacy and technological change in the Ottoman Empire," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 357-371.
    10. Jelena Pokimica & Isaac Addai & Baffour Takyi, 2012. "Religion and Subjective Well-Being in Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 61-79, March.
    11. Resul Cesur & Naci H. Mocan, 2013. "Does Secular Education Impact Religiosity, Electoral Participation and the Propensity to Vote for Islamic Parties? Evidence from an Education Reform in a Muslim Country," NBER Working Papers 19769, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Oliveira, Livio Luiz Soares de, 2013. "A teoria econômica da religião: aspectos gerais [Economics of religion: general aspects]," MPRA Paper 52012, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Samuel Bazzi & Gabriel Koehler-Derrick & Benjamin Marx, 2020. "The Institutional Foundations of Religious Politics: Evidence from Indonesia [“The Classical Islamic Law of Waqf: A Concise Introduction”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 845-911.
    14. Jara-Díaz, Sergio & Rosales-Salas, Jorge, 2017. "Beyond transport time: A review of time use modeling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 209-230.
    15. Lehrer, Evelyn L, 1996. "Religion as a Determinant of Marital Fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 173-196, May.
    16. Syed Nisar Hussain Hamdani & Eatzaz Ahmad & Mahmood Khalid, 2004. "Study of Philanthropic Behaviour in Divine Economics Framework," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 43(4), pages 875-894.
    17. Philipp Ager & Antonio Ciccone, 2018. "Agricultural Risk and the Spread of Religious Communities," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 1021-1068.
    18. David de la Croix & Fabio Mariani & Marion Mercier, 2023. "Driven By Institutions, Shaped By Culture: Human Capital And The Secularization Of Marriage In Italy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1777-1818, November.
    19. Opfinger, Matthias & Gundlach, Erich, 2011. "Religiosity as a determinant of happiness," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 48360, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    20. Elgin, Ceyhun & Goksel, Turkmen & Gurdal, Mehmet Y. & Orman, Cuneyt, 2013. "Religion, income inequality, and the size of the government," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 225-234.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    religion; afterlife;

    JEL classification:

    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:1186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tamilla Benkelberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.