Session Program from Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture
for the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Western Economic Association International
The following is the final list of sessions to be sponsored by the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC) during the 2010 WEAI Annual Meeting in Portland. We have not tried to make changes as clear as possible. Where there are multiple authors, we have highlighted the submitting author in bold. We thank all staff at WEAI for their help as we have put these sessions together. As before, we first present a summary of our proposed sessions; the complete session descriptions follow.
Summary of ASREC SessionsJune 30:
8:15a: / 1a. Markets for Religion
8:15a: / 1b. Religion and Health
10:15a / 2. Religious Identity
2:30p / 3. The Economics of Religious Extremism
4:30p / 4a. Valuing Religion
4:30p / 4b. Congregational Behavior
July 1:
8:15a / 5. Faith in Community
10:15a / 6. Gender and the Family
2:30p / 7. Using the ARDA Effectively
4:30p / 8. ASREC Keynote Address
July 2:
8:15a / 9. Religious Commitment
10:15a / 10. Attitudes and Behaviors
2:30p / 11. Book Session on Berman’s Radical, Religious, and Violent
4:30p / 12. Governance and Growth
Organized by:
Charles M. NorthExecutive Director of ASREC
Baylor University
One Bear Place # 98003
Waco, TX 76798-8003
Phone: 254-710-6229
Fax: 254-710-6142
E-mail: / Robert I. Mochrie
ASREC Programme Chair
School of Management and Languages
Heriot-Watt University
Riccarton, Edinburgh, UK EH14 4AS
Phone: 0131-451-3481
Fax: 0131-451-3296
E-mail:
Session 1a: Markets for Religion
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Religious Institutions
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: June 30, 8:15 am
Chair: Tony Gill
Paper 1: Charles North, Baylor University
Title Religion and the Emergence of the Rule of Law
Paper 2: Chew Soo Hong, National University of Singapore and Li King King, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Title: Moral Sentiments among Buddhist Monks in Southern India: Evidence from Economic Experiments using Behavioral Games
Paper 3: Steven Pfaff and Katie Corcoran, University of Washington
Title: The Political Economy of the Reformation: Religious Monopoly, Political Regime, and Urban Reform in the Holy Roman Empire
Discussant: Marc von der Ruhr
Session 1b: Health, Value, and Values
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Health, Value, and Values
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: June 30, 8:15 am
Chair: Evelyn Lehrer
Paper 1: Gindo Tampubolon and Siobhan McAndrew, University of Manchester
Title: Well-being, Health and Religion in England.
Paper 2: Timothy T. Brown, University of California, Berkeley
Title: A Monetary Valuation of Individual Religious Behavior: The Case of Prayer
Paper 3: Carlos E. Puente, University of California, Davis
Title: On the Most Economic Geometry of Peace
Discussant: Jonathan Rosborough
Session 2: Religious Identity
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Religious Identity
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: June 30, 10:15 am
Chair: Charles North
Paper 1: Wafa Hakim Orman, University of Alabama in Huntsville
Title: Survival of the Strictest? An Experimental Examination of Club Goods
Paper 2: Daniel J. Benjamin, Cornell University, James J. Choi, Yale University, and Geoffrey Fisher, Cornell University
Title: Religious Identity and Economic Behavior
Paper 3: Jason Wollschleger, University of Washington, and Lindsey Beach, Seattle Pacific University
Title: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Belonging without Belief
Discussant: Li King King
Session 3: The Economics of Religious Extremism
Session Organizer: Laurence R. Iannaccone, Chapman University
Session Title: The Economics of Religious Extremism
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: June 30, 2:30 pm
Chair: Laurence R. Iannaccone, Chapman University
Paper 1: Laurence R. Iannaccone and SangHo Yoon, Chapman University
Title: Sacrifice and Stigma Revisited: A Generalized Model of Religious and Secular Extremism
Paper 2: Michael McBride and Gary Richardson, University of California at Irvine
Title: Fighting Insurgent Organizations: Asymmetric Conflicts, Unintended Consequences, and Optimal Strategies
Paper 3: Jason Aimone, George Mason University, Michael D. Makowsky, Towson University, and Jared Rubin, California State University – Fullerton,
Title: Endogenous Group Formation via Unproductive Costs
Discussant: Sean Everton, Naval Post Graduate School.
Session 4a: Valuing Religion
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Valuing Religion
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: June 30, 4:30 pm
Chair: Robert Mochrie
Paper 1: Danny Cohen-Zada, Ben Gurion University, and William Sander, DePaul University
Title: Religious Participation Versus Shopping: What Makes People Happier?
Paper 2: Zuleika Ferre, Mariana Gerstenblüth and Máximo Rossi, University of Uruguay
Title: Religious beliefs and happiness: Does religion make us happier?
Paper 3: Sara Helms and Jeremy Thornton, Samford University
Title: Afterlife Incentives in Charitable Giving
Paper 4: Mariya Aleksynska, CEPII, Paris and Barry R. Chiswick, University of Illinois at Chicago
Title: Religion and Religiosity: The Role of Individual, Home, and Host Country and Effects in Determining the Outcomes of Immigrants and Native-born
Discussant: Katie Corcoran
Session 4b: Congregational Behavior
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Congregational Behavior
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: June 30, 4:30 pm
Chair: Mukesh Eswaran
Paper 1: Marc von der Ruhr, St. Norbert College, and Joseph P. Daniels, Marquette University
Title: Subsidizing Religious Participation through Groups: A Model of the “Megachurch” Strategy for Growth
Paper 2: Becky R. Haney, Neil Carlson, and Jeffrey Schiman, Calvin College
Title: The Generous Congregation in Context: Spatial and Social Patterns of Congregational Giving in a Metropolitan County
Paper 3: Simon Medcalfe, Augusta State University, and Cecil Sharp, M.D.
Title: A Financial Analysis of Church Growth
Discussant: Siobhan McAndrew
Session 5: Faith in Community
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Faith in Community
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 1, 8:15 am
Chair: Jared Rubin
Paper 1: Karrie J. Koesel, University of Oregon
Title: Unholy Alliances? Religion and the State in China
Paper 2: Jonathan Rosborough, St. Francis Xavier University
Title: Government Grants and Church Charitable Spending
Paper 3: Tony Gill, University of Washington
Title: Septics, Sewers and Secularization: How Local Governments Flush Religiosity down the Drain
Discussant: Catherine Pakaluk
Session 6: Gender and the Family
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Faith in Community
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 1, 10:15 am
Chair: Jeffrey Scholes
Paper 1: Catherine R. Pakaluk, Harvard University
Title: The New Battle of the Sexes: Understanding the Reversal of the Happiness Gender Gap
Paper 2: Evelyn L. Lehrer, University of Illinois-Chicago
Title: Religion, Human Capital Investments and the Family in the United States
Paper 3: Tiffany Chou, University of California, San Diego
Title: Is Fertility Decline Contagious? Fertility and Religiosity in the Post-Vatican II Period
Discussant: Mariya Aleksynska
Session 7: Using the ARDA Effectively
Session Organizer: Christopher Bader
Session Title: Using the ARDA Effectively
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 1, 2:30 pm
Chair: Christopher Bader, Baylor University
Paper 1: Christopher Bader, Baylor University
Title: The Religion Research Hub at the ARDA: A Tool for Religion Theory and Research
Paper 2: Andrew Whitehead, Baylor University
Title: New Developments at the ARDA's Learning Center
Paper 3: Robert Martin, Pennsylvania State University
Title: Resources for Cross-National Studies of Religion available on the ARDA
Session 8: ASREC Keynote Address
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: ASREC Keynote Address
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 1, 4:30 pm
Chair: TBA
Paper: TBA
Session 9: Religious Commitment
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Religious Commitment
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 2, 8:15 am
Chair: Eli Berman
Paper 1: Ronald Horst, University of Maryland
Title: Does Theology Matter? A Theoretical Look at Religious Terrorists and Their Organizations
Paper 2: Jared Rubin, California State University-Fullerton
Title: Centralized Institutions and Sudden Change: Austerity Riots, Iran, and Beyond
Paper 3: Daniel Koski-Karell, University of Washington
Title: Religious Movements and Moments of Dramatic Cultural Change: a Micro-theory of Critical Junctures
Discussant: Wafa Hakim Orman
Session 10: Attitudes and Behaviors
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Attitudes and Behaviors
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 2, 10:15 am
Chair: Christopher Bader
Paper 1: Dan Hungerman, University of Notre Dame
Title: Risky Behavior and Religious Participation
Paper 2: Mukesh Eswaran, University of British Columbia
Title: Competition and Performance in the Marketplace for Religion: A Theoretical Perspective
Paper 3: Masao Ogaki, Keio University, Charles Yuji Horioka, Osaka University, Akiko Kamesaka, Aoyama Gakuin University, Kohei Kubota, Osaka University, Fumio Ohtake, Osaka
University.
Title: Worldviews and Intergenerational Altruism
Discussant: Michael McBride
Session 11: Book Session on Berman’s Radical, Religious and Violent
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Book Session on Berman’s Radical, Religious, and Violent
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 2, 2:30 pm
Chair: Laurence R. Iannaccone, Chapman University
Panelists: Eli Berman, University of California, San Diego, Anthony Gill, University of Washington, Charles M. North, Baylor University
Session 12: Governance and Growth
Session Organizers: Robert I. Mochrie and Charles M. North
Session Title: Governance and Growth
Topic Area Code: Z12
Scheduling Request: July 2, 4:30 pm
Chair: Masao Ogaki
Paper 1: Seth Norton, Wheaton College
Title: Religion and the Quality of Government: A Nuanced View
Paper 2: Anja Klaubert, Leuphana University
Title: “Striving for Savings” – religion and individual economic behavior
Paper 3: Resit Ergener, Bogazici University
Title: Absence of Monasticism as One of the Causes of the Economic Underdevelopment of Moslem Countries
Discussant: Daniel Hungerman
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