An afterlife capital model of religious choice

What is it about?

In the afterlife capital framework, individuals make costly investments (e.g. attending church) towards a good afterlife. This paper adds additional features to the basic model. The main one is to allow for competition between religions that may be either exclusive or nonexclusive. It finds that religions have an incentive to adopt exclusivist doctrines that reduce the overall level of religiosity. It also considers the affects of parents deciding on the religious investment of Children.

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Why is it important?

Unlike approaches of other disciplines, economic models typically either find, or assume, that religious choice increases religiosity. This paper shows a reasonable economic model, that incorporates common features of religions, can come to the opposite conclusion.