Working Paper: NBER ID: w17589
Authors: Daniel M. Hungerman
Abstract: This paper considers substituting one charitable activity for another in the context of religious practice. I examine the impact of the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal on both Catholic and non-Catholic religiosity. I find that the scandal led to a 2-million-member fall in the Catholic population that was compensated by an increase in non-Catholic participation and by an increase in non-affiliation. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the scandal generated over 3 billion dollars in donations to non-Catholic faiths. Those substituting out of Catholicism frequently chose highly dissimilar alternatives; for example, Baptist churches gained significantly from the scandal while the Episcopal Church did not. These results challenge several theories of religious participation and suggest that regulatory policies or other shocks specific to one religious group could have important spillover effects on other religious groups.
Keywords: religion; catholic church; sex abuse scandal; religious competition; charitable giving
JEL Codes: H41; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Catholic sex abuse scandal (Z12) | decline in Catholic Church membership (Z12) |
| Catholic sex abuse scandal (Z12) | increase in non-Catholic religious participation (Z12) |
| decline in Catholic Church membership (Z12) | increase in non-Catholic religious participation (Z12) |
| Catholic sex abuse scandal (Z12) | substitution into other faiths (Z12) |
| Catholic sex abuse scandal (Z12) | increase in donations to non-Catholic groups (Z12) |
| decline in Catholic Church membership (Z12) | donations to non-Catholic groups (L31) |