Religious participation versus shopping : what makes people happier?
Cohen-Zada, Danny
Religious participation versus shopping : what makes people happier? created by Danny Cohen-Zada; William Sander - Journal of Law and Economics Volume 54, number 1 part 1 .
In this paper, we first explore how an exogenous increase in the opportunity cost of religious participation affects individuals' religious participation and reported happiness using data from the General Social Survey. The exogenous shift in the cost of religious participation is a result of repealing of so-called blue laws which restrict retail activity on Sundays. We find that repealing blue laws causes a significant decline in the level of religious participation of white women and in their happiness. We do not observe any significant decline in reported happiness of other groups whose religious participation was not significantly affected by repeal. We also use repeal as an instrumental variable (IV) for church attendance and provide direct evidence that church attendance has a significant positive effect on happiness, especially for women. -- religious participation ; happiness ; blue laws
Blue laws--Disposable income--Church attendance
Happiness--Insurance rates--Instrumental variables
Metropolitan areas--Protestantism--Placebos
HB73 JOU
Religious participation versus shopping : what makes people happier? created by Danny Cohen-Zada; William Sander - Journal of Law and Economics Volume 54, number 1 part 1 .
In this paper, we first explore how an exogenous increase in the opportunity cost of religious participation affects individuals' religious participation and reported happiness using data from the General Social Survey. The exogenous shift in the cost of religious participation is a result of repealing of so-called blue laws which restrict retail activity on Sundays. We find that repealing blue laws causes a significant decline in the level of religious participation of white women and in their happiness. We do not observe any significant decline in reported happiness of other groups whose religious participation was not significantly affected by repeal. We also use repeal as an instrumental variable (IV) for church attendance and provide direct evidence that church attendance has a significant positive effect on happiness, especially for women. -- religious participation ; happiness ; blue laws
Blue laws--Disposable income--Church attendance
Happiness--Insurance rates--Instrumental variables
Metropolitan areas--Protestantism--Placebos
HB73 JOU