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Employment, wages and religious revivals in post-communist countries

Employment, wages and religious revivals in post-communist countries. Pavol Minárik Turin / Prague. The problem. After the collapse of Communist regimes in Central Europe, religious participation (church attendance) increased rapidly

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Employment, wages and religious revivals in post-communist countries

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  1. Employment, wages and religious revivals inpost-communist countries Pavol Minárik Turin / Prague

  2. The problem After the collapse of Communist regimes in Central Europe, religious participation (church attendance) increased rapidly However, in most countries attendance rates have declined subsequently How do we account for such development?

  3. Prominent theories in SoR/EoR • Secularization theory (demand-side) • loss of faith/purpose due to modernization • increase in existential security … hardly applicable to post-communist countries • Supply-side theory • restricted competition at the religious market lowers the quality of services, hence decline • de-regulation in post-communist countries should have enhanced competition (?)

  4. The model • Our model differs • it focuses on the demand side and deals with individual’s choice on religious participation(Azzi & Ehrenberg JPE 1975, Sullivan 1985, etc.) • Assumptions • an individual maximizes utility from secular and religious consumption(both produced using time and money) • an individual allocates her time to labor, leisure and religious activities

  5. The model • Predictions (quite intuitive) • the older one is, the higher the religious participation (and consumption in general) • the higher the wage rate, the lower the religious participation * actually, for the youngest cohorts, participation may be slightly higher, as their wage rate is usually low

  6. In the post-communist period • Relevant factors in the post-communist period • decrease in real wages • decrease in employment rates

  7. Age and participation (yearly) Flawed data

  8. Age and participation (weekly) Flawed data

  9. Employment and participation

  10. Wages and participation It appears that participation is affected by wages and employment more in Catholic countries (Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia)

  11. Logistic regression results (OR) Wages have significant negative effect in Poland (OR=0.715; p=0.041) and Slovakia (OR=0.704; p=0.052), but positive in Slovenia (OR=1.803; p=0.028).

  12. Conclusions • Regarding the model • it does not explain the development completely; although, it has some merits • Regarding the model and alternative theories • it appears that different theories might work better as complements rather than substitutes • Regarding religious participation • economic factors do matter for religiosity • secularization in post-communist countries may follow Western models in future

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