Preaching to the choir? Economic analysis of Church Growth

Economic theory, applied economic modeling and econometric methods offer advantageous tools for analyzing numerous organizations, institutions and social contexts which are not inherently downright economical by nature, as religious markets. In contemporary rational choice religious market models, church growth is assumed to depend on surplus resources available for church development. These extra resources can exist as volunteer work and extra monetary contributions, delivered by enthusiasts and active members, signaling devotion and personal sacrifice. These inputs produce more members and attendants into churches. These hypotheses are tested by applying religious market data from Finland. Models are estimated by comparing data from the dominant state church and the competitive free-church. Both models seem to give support for previous argumentation, emphasizing the importance of volunteer activism and surplus efforts for the church growth.church growth, rational choice, religion, cost-benefit analysis, voluntary work

Implications of the Economics of Religion to the Empirical Economic Research

This paper collects most recent developments in the emerging economic sub-area Economics of Religion. According to secularization thesis, the importance of beliefs and religious activities should weaken as education, scientific knowledge and economic welfare increases. That hypothesis has been previously proofed false, but it continues to affect people's attitudes. This survey analyzes the economic consequences of religion, the two-way interrelationship between religious and economic activities and the present state of economic scrutiny on the subject, exploring the emerging sub-field of economics, which appends our notion of factors behind the economic behavior and growth, by including religious activity as an important factor in economic development. Changes in belief systems, which in many cases will be forms of religion, also can significantly influence individual behavior along with the maximization of individual profit and utility. The finding that economic growth depends also on the productivity of the religious sector, offers interesting future research opportunities.Economics of Religion, Religion, Economic Growth, Growth Theory, human capital, religious capital

Economic utopia of the Torah. Economic concepts of the Hebrew Bible interpreted according to the Rabbinical Literature

Hebrew Bible offers alternative Economic utopia for building Theocratic society. In this paper, various economic concepts and themes are presented, as found in the Hebrew Bible. These economic concepts include taxation, property rights, labor market, social policy, banking, years of Sabbath and Jubilee, and business cycles. Most economic issues of the Bible are found in the texts of Torah, also known as five Books of Moses. These texts are analyzed by using classical Rabbinical commentaries for better insight. Contrary to the modern Economic theory which is based on the assumptions of scarcity of resources and unlimited needs of consumers, Economics of the Torah is based on God’s resources which are enough for all true needs of His people.Hebrew Bible, History of Economics, History of Economic Thought, Ancient Israel, Judaism

Application of Economic Concepts on Religious Behavior

This survey gathers the current state of research activity on the emerging economic sub-area Economics of Religion. The religious beliefs and activities are analyzed from the viewpoint of economic theory and behavior. The advanced statistical tools and theoretical formulations of economic science can be applied to various problems of religious activity, dogma and social context. Analysis of interrelationship between economic and religious behavior increases our understanding of the nature and behavior of the target subject of economic science scrutiny, homo economicus.Economics of Religion, Religion, homo economicus, Club models, Religious production function

Structural testing of Business Cycles

In this article, the predictability performance of certain classical business cycle theories are tested against contemporary statistical methods by using Finnish macroeconomic data. Keynesian multiplier- accelerator model derivatives and neo-classical real business cycle models are compared to statistical stochastic time-series methods. Some philosophical considerations on the scientific principles and macroeconomic analysis are extended for applied econometric practice. VAR and SUTSE models are estimated and compared against classical theory implications. It is found that in this case, SUTSE model has a superior forecasting ability and that pure statistical algorithms are the most efficient alternatives for predicting Finnish business cycle data.Business Cycle, Real Business Cycle Theory, VAR, SUTSE, multiplier-acceleration

Interrelationship of economic growth and regional religious properties

During the past few years, empirical economic growth modeling has emerged by constructing and testing numerous model and explanatory variable alternatives. One of the most promising recent idea consists that also religious aspects should be included as explanatory variables into economic growth models, therefore capturing influences of culture, moral and ethics. Moral institutions and ethics affect the economic development, as for example, trust and honesty are essential requirements for emerging economic activity. In this paper, analysis of economic growth extends from international to regional level. Religious activities and beliefs are documented over a long time period in many Western economies, making quantitative empirical time series data available. Firstly, following the idea and argumentation by Barro and Mc Cleary (2003a, 2002), “religious production efficiency” measure is constructed and used in economic growth regressions for8 OECD countries, proxying quantifiable dimensions of culture. By using panel estimation methods and additionally time-series estimations for each country, rather than usual cross-country regressions, more information is gained concerning the country specific growth and religion characteristics. Empirical evidence from the panel data estimations seems to suggest that religious beliefs attain more relevance than religious attendance. Religious production efficiency, containing both belief and activity aspects, was not found statistically significant with panel data or with individual 8 OECD countries growth model, except for Finland. Significant coefficient for Finland can be explained by referring to Finland’s unique religious market properties, as the level of religious beliefs have historically been unusually high, and continue to be, in Finland. Secondly, interrelationship of Finland’s religious and economic variables are analyzed in regional level. Three small Finnish cities, all with strong religious Christian revival background, gain positive and significant coefficients when consumer income growth is regressed by religious activity. Nevertheless, more exact understanding on the links between these concepts are essentially needed to better model the economic consequences of cultural, religious and moral variables. Therefore, several suggestions are presented to gain better growth information in the future empirical growth modeling, including better theoretical background, more robust estimation techniques and longer data

What Makes University Students Happy?

Happiness studies are a growing research area in economics. In this study we focus on the determinants of subjective well-being of a particular sub-population, university students. Different happiness determinants are considered and tested empirically using survey data from Finland. An ordered probit model is applied. We compare the results with those of a similar study conducted among university students in Australia. The findings reveal that the most important influences on students' levels of satisfaction are social relationships, resources and the educational environment, personal goal achieving and extracurricular activities.

Miksi tutkia onnellisuutta maassa, jossa kahdeksan kymmenestä ilmoittaa olevansa onnellisia?

Kaikkea toimintaamme ohjaa pyrkimys säilyttää tai lisätä onnellisuuttamme. Kysymys siitä, miten tämä onnellisuus voidaan tavoittaa, on siis tärkeä. Mutta mitä onnellisuudella sitten tarkoitetaan? Voidaanko esimerkiksi todeta, että jokin valtio on toista onnellisempi? Onko onnellisuus jotakin, mitä voidaan mitata, vertailla ja jopa asettaa yhteiskunnalliseksi tavoitteeksi? Ja jos näin on, mitä onnellisuustutkimukset kertovat meille tämän päivän Suomesta? Artikkelin tarkoituksena on kartoittaa kansantaloustieteellisen onnellisuustutkimuksen piirissä tehtyjä empiirisiä havaintoja ja etsiä vastauksia edellä esitettyihin kysymyksiin

Mark Spitz ja menestyksen avaimet

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Sukupolvet videopelien turnajaisissa : e-urheilun markkinoiden ikärakenne

Digital gaming attracts people of all ages. Nevertheless, professional esports (also known as electronic sports, e-sports, or eSports) is dominated by under 35 year olds. In this paper, e-sports market is analysed by focusing on the performance of different age-groups. Younger generations play more digital games and dominate e-sports scene, but also older people enjoy playing various video games. Two separate datasets are analysed for testing whether age is a statistically significant explanatory variable for success in professional e-sports tournaments. According to the empirical results, success in e-sports tournaments decreases with the player’s age. The best results are gained when the players are under 25 years old. Negative relationship between age and e-sports success is confirmed by analysing both 100 best e-sports players and 100 oldest players. E-sports is gaining increasing popularity in the future and therefore it will also attract more fans amongst the birth cohorts of “boomers” and “Generation X”.peerReviewe