Law, Economics, and Religion: A Rational Choice Perspective
Vikas Kumar Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion National Law School of India University, Bangalore Email:
[email protected], Webpage: http://works.bepress.com/vikas_kumar Classes: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (6:00 - 7:30 PM) (LLM Business Law Classroom)
Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 1 Course description .................................................................................................................................. 2 Reading List ............................................................................................................................................. 3 Lecture 1-2: Introduction to Economics of Religion (EoR) .................................................................. 3 Literature reviews ........................................................................................................................... 3 Expanding domain of Economics .................................................................................................... 3 Methodology of Economics ............................................................................................................ 4 Relation between religion and economy ........................................................................................ 4 Formative contributions to EoR ...................................................................................................... 4 What is religion? ............................................................................................................................. 6 Justifications for rational choice analysis of religion ...................................................................... 6 Critiques of rational choice analysis of religion .............................................................................. 6 Lecture 3-6: Establishment of religion ................................................................................................ 7 Lecture 7-10: Legal-economic interpretation of religious texts ......................................................... 8 Evaluation Criteria................................................................................................................................. 11
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Course description Recent years have seen increasing interest in economic analyses of religion, which has led to the emergence of a new domain within Economics, namely, Economics of Religion (EoR). Within EoR literature the Law and Economics perspective is not yet well-developed. This course will engage with two specific issues related to law and religion that have attracted a lot of interest in EoR. In the first part of the course we will look at the issue of disestablishment of state religion. In the second we will engage with the legal-economic interpretations of religious scriptures and norms.
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Reading List Note: Most of the journal articles are available on JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org), etc whereas books are available on Google books or http://www.archive.org.
Lecture 1-2: Introduction to Economics of Religion (EoR) Literature reviews/collections of papers Ekelund, Jr., Robert B., Robert F. Hébert, and Robert D. Tollison (2006), The Marketplace of Christianity, MIT Press (Cambridge and London) Ekelund, Jr., Robert B., Robert F. Hebert, Robert D. Tollison, Gary M. Anderson, and Audrey B. Davidson (1996), Sacred Trust: The Medieval Church as an Economic Firm, Oxford University Press (New York) Iannaccone, L. R. (1998), ‘Introduction to the Economics of Religion’, Journal of Economic Literature, XXXVI, 1465-96 Iannaccone, Laurence R. and Eli Berman (2008), "Economics of Religion", In Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume (Ed.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd Edition), Palgrave Macmillan Kumar, Vikas (2008), ‘A Critical Review of Economic Analyses of Religion’, IGIDR Working Paper Series WP2008-023 http://works.bepress.com/vikas_kumar Kumar, Vikas (2009a), Economics of Religion, Manuscript (class presentation) Oslington, Paul (2003, Ed.), Economics and Religion, Edward Elgar (Cheltenham)
Expanding domain of Economics Akerlof, George A. (1997), ‘Social Distance and Social Decisions’, Econometrica, LXV, 1005-1027 Becker, Gary S. (1976), The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, Chicago University Press Buchanan, James M. (1964), ‘What Should Economists Do?’, Southern Economic Journal, 30 (3), 213-222 Coase, R. H. (1978), ‘Economics and Contiguous Disciplines’, Journal of Legal Studies, 7(2), 201-211 Hirshleifer, Jack (1985), ‘The Expanding Domain of Economics’, American Economic Review, 75 (6), 53-68 Posner, Richard A. (2006), ‘A Review of Steven Shavell's "Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law"’, Journal of Economic Literature, 44 (2), 405-414 Posner, Richard A. (1987), ‘The Law and Economics Movement’, American Economic Review, 77 (2), 1-13 Stigler, George (1984), ‘Economics - The Imperial Science?’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 86 (3), 301-313
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Methodology of Economics Becker, Gary S. (1976), The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, Chicago University Press Friedman, Milton (1953), ‘The Methodology of Positive Economics’, in Essays in Positive Economics, Chicago University Press (Chicago) Hausman, Daniel (2006, Ed.), The Philosophy of Economics: An Anthology, Cambridge University Press (New York) Katz, Avery Weiner (1998), Foundations of the Economic Approach to Law, Foundation Press (New York)
Relation between religion and economy Iannaccone, L. R. (1998), ‘Introduction to the Economics of Religion’, Journal of Economic Literature, XXXVI, 1465-96 Kumar, Vikas (2009a), Economics of Religion, Manuscript (class presentation) Kumar, Vikas (2008), ‘A Critical Review of Economic Analyses of Religion’, IGIDR Working Paper Series WP2008-023 http://works.bepress.com/vikas_kumar Paldam, Martin (2001), ‘Corruption and Religion: Adding to the Economic Model’, Kyklos, 54 (2-3), 383-413 Parsons, Talcott (1979), ‘Religious and Economic Symbolism in the Western World’, Sociological Inquiry, 49, 148 Miller, Kent D. (2006a), ‘A Case for Including Religious Organizations in Management Research’, Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, 3 (3), 214-230 Welch, Patrick J. and J. J. Mueller (2001), ‘The Relationship of Religion to Economics’, Review of Social Economy, 59 (2), 185-202
Formative contributions to EoR
Adam Smith Smith, Adam (1776), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, available online Anderson, Gary M. (1988), ‘Mr. Smith and the Preachers: The Economics of Religion in the Wealth of Nations’, Journal of Political Economy, 96 (5), 1066-88 Ekelund, Jr., Robert B., Robert F. Hébert, and Robert D. Tollison (2005),’ Adam Smith on Religion and Market Structure’, History of Political Economy, 37 (4), 647–60
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Leathers, Charles G. and J. Patrick Raines (2008), ‘Adam Smith on Religion and Market Structure: The Search for Consistency’, History of Political Economy, 40 (2), 345-363 Rosenberg, Nathan (1960), ‘Some Institutional Aspects of the Wealth of Nations’, Journal of Political Economy, 68 (6), 557-570
Karl Marx Bottomore, Tom, Laurence Harris, V. G. Kiernan, and Ralph Miliband (1997), A Dictionary of Marxist Thought, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford) Lobkowicz, N. (1964), ‘Karl Marx's Attitude toward Religion’, Review of Politics, 26 (3), 319-352
Emile Durkheim Durkheim, Emile (1897), Suicide: A Study in Sociology, The Free Press (Glencoe, translated by John A. Spaulding and George Simpson, 1951) Durkheim, Emile (1912), The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, George Allen & Unwin Ltd (London, translated by Joseph Ward Swain, 1915) Lukes, Steven (1985), Emile Durkheim - His Life and Work: A Historical and Critical Study, Stanford University Press (Stanford)
Max Weber Samuelsson, Kurt (1961), Religion and Economic Action: A Critique of Max Weber, Harper & Row Publishers (New York) Weber, Max (1920), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Routledge (London, translated by Talcott Parsons, 1930) Weber, Max (1946), Essays in Sociology, Oxford University Press (New York, translated by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills) Weber, Max (1978), Economy and Society, University of California Press (Berkeley, Ed. Guether Roth and Claus Wittich) For further references refer Kumar (2008, 2009)
Others
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Azzi, Corry and Ronald G. Ehrenberg (1975), ‘Household Allocation of Time and Church Attendance’, Journal of Political Economy, 83 (1), 27-56 Iannaccone, L. R. (1992), ‘Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives’, Journal of Political Economy, 100 (2), 271-291 Iannaccone, L. R. (1988), ‘A formal model of church and sect’, American Journal of Sociology, 9 (Supplement), s241-s268
See also Literature reviews/collections of papers
What is religion? Balagangadhara, S. N. (2005 *1994+), “The Heathen in his Blindness…”: Asia, The West and the Dynamic of Religion, Manohar Publishers and Distributors (New Delhi) Geertz, Clifford (2000 [1973]), Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, Basic Books (New York) Goody, J. (1961), ‘Religion and Ritual: The Definitional Problem’, British Journal of Sociology, 12 (2), 142-164 Stark, Rodney and William S. Bainbridge (1985), The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival and Cult Formation, University of California Press (Berkeley and Los Angeles)
Justifications for rational choice analysis of religion Iannaccone, L. R. (1995b), ‘Voodoo Economics? Reviewing the Rational Choice Approach to Religion’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34 (1), 76-88 Warner, R. Stephen (1993), ‘Work in Progress Toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States’, American Journal of Sociology, 98 (5), 1044-1093 Kumar, Vikas (2009a), Economics of Religion, Manuscript (class presentation)
Critiques of rational choice analysis of religion Baron, James N. and Michael T. Hannan (1994), ‘The Impact of Economics on Contemporary Sociology’, Journal of Economic Literature, 32 (3), 1111-1146 Bruce, Steve (1993), ‘Religion and rational choice: a critique of economic explanations of religious behavior’, Sociology of Religion, 54 (2), 193-205 Caplan, Bryan (2006), ‘The Economics of Szasz: Preferences, Constraints and Mental Illness’, Rationality and Society, 18 (3), 333-366 Caplan, Bryan (2001), ‘Rational Ignorance versus Rational Irrationality’, Kyklos, 54 (1), 3-26
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Chaves, Mark (1995), ‘On the Rational Choice Approach to Religion’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34 (1), 98-104 Demerath, N. J. (1995), ‘Rational Paradigms, A-Rational Religion, and the Debate over Secularization’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34 (1), 105-112 Ellison, Christopher G. (1995), ‘Rational Choice Explanations of Individual Religious Behavior: Notes on the Problem of Social Embeddedness’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34 (1), 89-97 Frey, Bruno S. (1997), ‘Rational Choice in Religion and Beyond’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 153 (1), 279-84 Gomez, Pierre-Yves and Rickie Moore (2006), ‘From Strategy of Religions to Religion of Strategy: Comments on Miller’s (2002) “Competitive Strategy of Religious Organizations”’, Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, 3(3), 199-213 Kumar, Vikas (2009), Economics of Religion, Manuscript (class presentation) Kuran, Timur (1994), ‘Religious Economics and the Economics of Religion’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 150 (4), 769-775 Montgomery, James D. (1996a), ‘Contemplations on Economic Approach to Religious Behaviour’, American Economic Review, 86 (2), 443-447 Rasmusen, Eric (2009), ‘The Concealment Argument: Why Christians Should Be Agnostics’, Manuscript (Available at http://rasmusen.org/paper/Conceal.htm) Robertson, Roland (1992), ‘The Economization of Religion? Reflections on the Promise and Limitations of the Economic Approach’, Social Compass, 39, 147-157 Schlicht, E. (1995), ‘Economic Analysis and Organized Religion’, In E.L. Jones and V. Reynolds (Ed.), Survival and Religion: Biological Evolution and Cultural Change, Wiley (Chichester) Sen, Amartya K. (1977), ‘Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6 (4), 317-344 Sherkat, D. (2001), ‘Leaving the faith: Testing theories of religious switching’, Social Science Research 20, 171187 Zech, Charles E. (1998), ‘Four economic models of congregation applied to religious congregations’, in Demerath, N. J., P. D. Hall, T. Schmitt, and R. H. Williams (Eds.), Sacred Companies: Organizational Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organizations, Oxford University Press (New York), 256-268
Lecture 3-6: Establishment of religion Coase, R. H. (1974), ‘The Market for Goods and the Market for Ideas’, American Economic Review, 64(2), 384391 Barro, Robert J. and Rachel M. McCleary (2005), ‘Which Countries have State Religion’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, CXX, 1091-1126 Federalist Papers, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/fed.asp Finke, Roger and R. Stark (1988), ‘Religious economies and sacred canopies: religious mobilization in American cities, 1906’, American Sociological Review, 53 (1), 41-49
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Fox, Jonathan (2006), ‘World Separation of Religion and State Into the 21st Century’, Comparative Political Studies, 39, 537-569 Grim, Brian J. and Roger Finke (2006), ‘International Religion Indexes: Government Regulation, Government Favoritism, and Social Regulation of Religion’, Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 2, Article 1 Iannaccone, L. R. (1991), ‘The Consequences of Religious Market Regulation: Adam Smith and the Economics of Religion’, Rationality and Society, 3 (2), 156-177 Iannaccone, L. R., Roger Finke, and Rodney Stark (1997), ‘Deregulating Religion: The Economics of Church and State’, Economic Inquiry, 35 (2), 350-364 Kumar, Vikas (2009b), ‘A Rational Choice Model of Secularism’, Manuscript (class presentation) Leiter, Brian (2008),’Why Tolerate Religion?’, Constitutional Commentary, 25 (3) (Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1012910) McConnell, Michael W. and Richard A. Posner (1989), ‘An Economic Approach to Issues of Religious Freedom’, University of Chicago Law Review, 56(1), 1-60 Montgomery, James D. (2003), ‘A Formalization and Test of the Religious Economies Model’, American Sociological Review, 68, 782-809 Olson, Daniel V. A. (1999), ‘Religious Pluralism and US Church Membership: A Reassessment’, Sociology of Religion, 60(2), 149-173 Olson, Daniel V. A. and C. Kirk Hadaway (1999), ‘Religious Pluralism and Affiliation among Canadian Counties and Cities’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 38(4), 490-508 Posner, Richard A. (1987), ‘The Law and Economics Movement’, American Economic Review, 77 (2), 1-13 Roemer, John E. (1998), ‘Why the Poor Do Not Expropriate the Rich: An Old Argument in New Garb’, Journal of Public Economics, 70 (3), 399-424 Salmon, Pierre (2008), ‘Serving God in a Largely Theocratic Society: Rivalry and Cooperation between Church and King’, Working Paper (Available at http://www.u-bourgogne.fr/leg/documents-de-travail/e2008-04.pdf) Smith, Adam (see above) Sommerville, C. John (2002), ‘Stark's Age of Faith Argument and the Secularization of Things: A Commentary’, Sociology of Religion, 63 (3), 361-372 Sommerville, C. John (1998), ‘Secular Society/Religious Population: Our Tacit Rules for Using the Term 'Secularization'’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37(2), 249-253 Tschannen, Olivier (1991), ‘The Secularization Paradigm: A Systematization’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30(4), 395-415 Voas, David, Daniel Olson, and Alasdair Crockett (2002), ‘Religious Pluralism and Participation: Why Previous Research is Wrong’, American Sociological Review, 67, 212-230
Lecture 7-10: Legal-economic interpretation of religious texts Arruñada, Benito (2004) ‘Catholic Confession of Sins as Third-Party Moral Enforcement’, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Economics Working Papers
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Ault, Richard W., Robert B. Ekelund, and Robert D. Tollison (1987), ‘The Pope and Price of Meat: A Public Choice Perspective’, Kyklos, 40 (3), 399-413 Aumann, Robert J. and M. Maschler (1985), ‘Game Theoretic Analysis of a Bankruptcy Problem from the Talmud’, Journal of Economic Theory, 36 (2), 195-213 Brams, Steven J. (2007 [1983]), Superior Beings: If They Exist How Would We Know?, Springer Verlag (New York) Brams, Steven J. (2003 [1980]), Biblical games: Game theory and the Hebrew Bible, MIT Press (Cambridge) Cassone, Alberto and Carla Marchese (1995), ‘The Economics of Religious Indulgences’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 155 (3), 429-442 Ekelund, Jr., Robert B., Robert F. Hébert, and Robert D. Tollison (2006), The Marketplace of Christianity, MIT Press (Cambridge and London) Ekelund, Jr., Robert B., Robert F. Hebert, Robert D. Tollison, Gary M. Anderson, and Audrey B. Davidson (1996), Sacred Trust: The Medieval Church as an Economic Firm, Oxford University Press (New York) Fama, E.F. and M. C. Jensen (1983), ‘Separation of Ownership and Control’, Journal of Law and Economics, 26, 301-325 Ferrero, M. (2008), ‘The triumph of Christianity in the Roman empire: An economic interpretation’, European Journal of Political Economy, 24 (1), 73-87 Ferrero, M. (2002), ‘Competition for sainthood and the millennial church’, Kyklos, 55 (3), 335-360 Gordon, Barry (1994), ‘Theological Positions and Economic Perspectives in Ancient Literature’, in Brenan, H. Geoffrey and Waterman, A. M. C. (Ed.), Economics and Religion: Are They Distinct?, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Boston, Dordrecht, and London), 19-40 Gruber, Jonathan and Daniel M. Hungerman (2006), ‘The Church vs. the Mall: What Happens When Religion Faces Increased Secular Competition?’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123 (2), 831-862 Harmgart, Heike, Steffen Huck, and Wieland Müller (2006), ‘The Miracle as a Randomization Device: A Lesson from Richard Wagner’s Romantic Opera Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg’, TILEC Discussion Paper 2006-006 Heaton, Paul (2006), ‘Does Religion Really Reduce Crime?’, Journal of Law and Economics, 49 (1), 147-72 Hull, Brooks B. (1989), ‘Religion, Afterlife, and Property Rights in the High Middle Ages’, Studies in Economic Analysis, 12 (1), 3-21 Hull, Brooks B. and Frederick Bold (1994), ‘Hell, Religion, and Cultural Change’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 150 (3), 447-464 Liebermann, Yehoshua (1986), ‘Economic Efficiency and Making of the Law: The Case of Transaction Costs in Jewish Law’, Journal of Legal Studies, 15 (2), 387-404 Liebermann, Yehoshua (1985), ‘Competition in Consumption as Viewed by Jewish Law, Journal of Business Ethics, 4, 385-393 Liebermann, Yehoshua (1981), ‘The Coase Theorem in Jewish Law’, Journal of Legal Studies, 10 (2), 293-303 Malina, Bruce J. (1997), ‘Embedded Economics: The Irrelevance of Christian Fictive Domestic Economy’, Forum for Social Economics, 26 (2), 1-20
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Miller, Geoffrey P. (1996), ‘The Song of Deborah: A Legal-Economic Analysis’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 144 (5), 2293-2320 Miller, Geoffrey P. (1994), ‘The Legal-Economic Approach to Biblical Interpretation’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 150 (4), 755-762 Miller, Geoffrey P. (1993a), ‘Contracts of Genesis’, Journal of Legal Studies, 22 (1), 15-45 Miller, Geoffrey P. (1993b), ‘Ritual and Regulation: A Legal-Economic Interpretation of Selected Biblical Texts’, Journal of Legal Studies, 22 (2), 477-501 Miller, William Ian (2006), Eye for an Eye, Cambridge University Press Raskovich, Alexander (1996), ‘You Shall Have No Other Gods Besides Me: A Legal-Economic Analysis of the Rise of Yahweh’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 152 (3), 449-471 Richardson, Gary and Micheal McBride (2008), ‘Religion, Longevity, and Cooperation: The Case of the Craft Guild’, NBER Working Paper Series 14004 Smith, I. (2002), ‘A Rational Choice Model of the Book of Revelation’, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 85, 97-116 Viswanath, P.V. (2007), ‘The Use of Real Estate for the Settlement of Claims in Roman Palestine’, IGIDR Working Paper Series 2007-002 Viswanath, P.V. (2000), ‘Risk Sharing, Diversification and Moral Hazard in Roman Palestine: Evidence from Agricultural Contract Law’, International Review of Law and Economics, 20, 353-369 Viswanath, P.V. and M. Szenberg (2007), ‘Examining the Biblical Perspective on the Environment in a Costly Contracting Framework’, In Carmel Chiswick and Tikva Lehrer (Ed.), Economics of Judaism, Bar Ilan University Press
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Evaluation Criteria Class participation: 15% (Sitting like a duck will not help!) Short Essay: 15% Long Essay: 70%
A few points regarding essays: 1.
Choose a topic of interest.
2.
The Short Essay should be submitted latest by the second Saturday of September 2009 (4 P.M.).
3.
4.
a.
The Short Essay should only contain literature review.
b.
1200 words (max.) excluding references, 1 inch margin, 1.5 line spacing, Calibri 12 font, keep complete references at the end (in the text just say X (1967: 54) has noted…)
The Long Essay should be submitted latest by the fourth Saturday of September 2009 (4 P.M.). a.
The Long Essay should contain your contribution to the topic.
b.
4000 words (max.)
Please send your submissions to
[email protected]. a.
The files should be named as follows: X_Essay_LER_Firstname_Secondname
b.
Please only submit PDF files.
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