Charles E. Zech

The Effect of Religious Market Competition on Church Giving

This paper contributes to the debate over the effects of religious pluralism on religosity. A key innovative feature of the paper is the use of voluntary contributions from members as a measure of religiosity. Using data from 177 congregations, and employing both the Herfindahl Index and market share as measures of religious market competition, a two-stage least squares estimation technique shows that Protestants give more when their congregation is faced with substantial competition, while Catholics tend to contribute more when they represent a minority church in a heavily concentrated market. This outcome is explained by arguing that churches with more competition react by providing a more satisfactory product and do a better job of filling niches in the religious marketplace.

Leibenstein's bandwagon effect as applied to voting

SummaryThis paper has attempted to demonstrate how the bandwagon effect would alter the benefit-cost decision inherent in voting. It was shown that, other things held constant, the existence of a bandwagon would lead to a situation where the favored candidate receives an increased number of votes at each cost. However, it was also noted that when all things are considered, it is most difficult to predict the overall effect of the announcement of a runaway election due to the simultaneous effect of rational abstention.

Choices of organizational structures in religious organizations: a game theoretic approach

Abstract This study has extended the work done by Allen [Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 27 (1995) 97] and others who attempted to show a relationship between a denomination’s doctrine and its organizational structure. While Allen’s work resulted in a one-to-one mapping between doctrinal beliefs and organizational structure, this study has argued that there exists a continuum of structures that are consistent with a particular church’s doctrine. The church’s ultimate organizational structure is a game theoretic outcome resulting when churches attempt to maximize membership subject to the constraints imposed by their doctrines. We examine how churches’ organizational structures depend on the extent to which members are willing to sacrifice their structural preferences to hold on to their doctrines. Consistent with Allen’s outcome, our result indicates the further apart are the doctrines held by two churches, the greater the variation in their structural organization. This paper also examines the relationship between churches’ organizational structures and the degree of the majority church’s majority.

The Case for State-Level Export Promotion Assistance: A Comparison of Foreign and Domestic Export Employment Multipliers

Most states are currently engaged in some form of foreign export assistance as part of the states overall economic development strategy. However, this raises the question as to whether scarce state economic development resources should be diverted from the more traditional economic development programs in order to fund foreign export stimulation. This study develops and tests a model to compare the employment multiplier of foreign exports with that of domestic exports. The results indicate that the foreign export employment multiplier is significantly greater than the domestic multiplier This lends support to a policy of using state economic development funds for foreign export development.

The Agency Relationship in Churches: An Empirical Analysis

The agency relationship has been observed in a variety of settings. Churches, like other organizations, are plagued with the typical agency problems of moral hazard, observability, goal displacement, and risk aversion. How do churches cope with these issues in dealing with their most critical resource, clergy? This study analyzes the agency relationship between churches and their clergy. Using data from nine denominations, this study finds strong evidence that pastor compensation is not tied directly to performance, but rather indirectly through promotion tournaments. Successful pastors are rewarded by being called to larger, presumably wealthier and more prestigious, congregations. Since it is so difficult to observe and measure a pastors performance in specific activities, churches differentiate good pastors from mediocre ones by considering their total performance, rather than any specific activities.

Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: A re-examination of old evidence from churches: Comment

This paper comments on a recent study by Lipford (1995) which rejects the hypothesis of free ridership. This paper contends that Lipfords analysis suffers from two serious misspecification errors. A re-examination of Lipfords results suggests that free ridership could occur. Other hypotheses, however, are also consistent with the new results.

DETERMINANTS OF RELIGIOUS GIVING IN URBAN PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATIONS

Using a sample of 320 urban Presbyterian congregations we tested four factors purported to affect contribution levels: socioeconomic level of the congregation, the stewardship approach used, programs sponsored, and the extent of democratic participation in decision-making. The strongest relationships were not with raw contributions but with the square root of contributions as a percentage of overall household income. The most important predictor was the economic level of the membership (the higher the income the lower the percent given to the church). Other predictors were church size (the larger the church the lower percent given), the number of new members, use of stewardship programs, effective congregational programs, and participatory decision-making. The study of religious contributions has become an important topic in the 1990s. Nearly every denomination has concerns about contributions. Roman Catholics have been prodded by the revelation made by Greeley and McManus (1987) and others that they contribute at only about half the rate of Protestants, costing the U.S. Catholic Church over

The Effective Design of Church Web Sites: Extending the Consumer Evaluation of Web Sites to the Non-Profit Sector

6 billion in lost revenue each year. Mainline Protestants have been concerned about the impact on contributions of decreasing membership, along with congregational declines in allocations to benevolences. These problems have spawned numerous studies. Some researchers have compared contributions across denominations, while others have focused on a single denomination. This paper examines only one denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It presents some of the proposed theoretical explanations for levels of giving, analyzes them using a simple empirical model, and then discusses the implications of the findings. We study only urban churches, for two reasons. First, the data set we used is more reliable for urban than for rural churches. Second, rural congregations tend to be small and homogeneous, with less institutional variation and fewer identifiable determinants to distinguish different levels of giving.

Understanding denominational structures: churches as franchise organizations

Web sites are becoming an important gateway for churches to attract new members and communicate with the membership. Research has focused on developing guidelines for web site design in the for-profit world, but little has been said about non-profit web sites. This study uses an established instrument to elicit over 1100 responses from parishioners who evaluated a random sample of 250 church web sites. The results provide some guidance about which features are most valued by church members.

Ancient futures: papal and Buddhist economics

One of the most complex, yet least‐analyzed, organizational relationships is that between a religious denomination and its member congregations. This study maintains that denominational‐congregational relationships in US Christian churches can be informed by the franchise model of organizations. It is argued that it is possible to envision a continuum of church organizational structures, ranging from a branch office, through various forms of franchise arrangements (including company owned, business format, and trademark franchises) to freestanding entrepreneurial units. By studying those situations where the franchise model explains denominational behavior, and contrasting them with those situations where the franchise model is not a good fit, we can learn more about denominational structures.