Despite all economic and social transitions that have occurred in the last centuries we still find that people go to church. Somehow religious beliefs have not vanished over time. Since there is no material reward for going to church or praying religiosity has to create utility through other...

The European Union emphasizes the advantages arising from diversity. However, economic studies prove that diversity can lead to detrimental outcomes, ultimately resulting in lower well-being. This paper assesses the direct link between well-being and diversity within a society, in terms of...

Religious Market Theory assigns basic market principles to the market for religion. The derived supply side model proposes that religiosity is higher on a competitive market, characterized by high religious diversity. Churches will provide higher quality goods compared to monopolistic churches....

Iannaccone’s (1991) seminal paper assigns basic market principles to the market for religion. Ina competitive market with high religious diversity the level of overall religiosity should increase. TheSecularization Hypothesis suggests that the establishment of new churches casts doubt on the...

We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel dataafter controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happinesscan be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A risein income causes an...

Despite all economic and social transitions that have occurred in the last centuries we still find that people go to church. Somehow religious beliefs have not vanished over time. Since there is no material reward for going to church or praying religiosity has to create utility through other...

We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes...