Substitution and stigma
Subtitle: evidence on religious competition from the Catholic sex-abuse scandal
By: Daniel M. Hungerman
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 17589; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17589.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "This paper considers substituting one charitable activity for another in the context of religious practice.  I examine the impact of the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal on both Catholic and non-Catholic religiosity.  I find that the scandal led to a 2-million-member fall in the Catholic population that was compensated by an increase in non-Catholic participation and by an increase in non-affiliation.  Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the scandal generated over 3 billion dollars in donations to non-Catholic faiths.  Those substituting out of Catholicism frequently chose highly dissimilar alternatives; for example, Baptist churches gained significantly from the scandal while the Episcopal Church did not.  These results challenge several theories of religious participation and suggest that regulatory policies or other shocks specific to one religious group could have important spillover effects on other religious groups"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 1/12/2012.

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