Rachel M Mccleary
Biographic Data
| ID | 304393 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel M Mccleary |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel M |
| FAMILY NAME | Mccleary |
| SIGNATURE | MCCLEARY R M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4894-779X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 472 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Economy, Religion and
The modern study of religion and economics begins with Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Smith applied his economic analysis to several aspects of religion that researchers have since developed with quantitative research. Smith's fundamental contribution to the study of religion was that religious beliefs and activities are rational choices. As in commercial activity, people respond to religious c…
Islam and Economic Growth
Islam's ultimate aim for Muslims is to render Muslims to achieve the salvation (falah) in afterlife as well as their temporary life in earth. A moderate welfare in this life is required for Muslims in order for them to fulfil their responsibilities in terms of their personal religious life. What is meant by a moderate economic life standard is that the welfare of the entire society should not be accumulated in some certain classes of the society,…
Protestant Innovative Evangelizing to Oral Cultures in Guatemala
Protestant missions to Guatemala, in varying degrees, incorporated innovative oral, visual, and audio evangelizing strategies in their proselytizing. The traditional mainline Protestant bias favoring the “triumph of literacy” over oral/audible forms of learning sidetracked those missions engaged in vernacular translations of the Bible away from direct evangelization and toward investment of significant financial and human resources into literacy …
Religion and Economic Growth
Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth has typically neglected the influence of religion.To fill this gap, we use international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth.To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, we use instrumental variables suggested by our analysis of systems in which …
The Wealth of Religions
Seeking Justice
Saints Marching In, 1590–2012
The Catholic Church has been making saints for centuries in the two‐stage process of beatification and canonization. We analyse determinants of numbers beatified and canonized (non‐martyrs) since 1590 across seven world regions. The number beatified is roughly proportional to a pope's tenure and a region's Catholic population, responds positively since the early 20th century to Catholic–Protestant competition and to secularization, and falls afte…
Residential segregation, geographic proximity and type of services used
Religion and the Spread of Human Capital and Political Institutions
Although often ignored, religion has profoundly shaped political and economic conditions around the world. This claim is suggested by three historical divergences: a divergence between Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim regions of Europe (these differences emerged after the Reformation and began to dissipate only after World War II); a divergence between Protestant and Catholic settler colonies in Oceania and the Americas; and a divergenc…
The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion
This book brings together scholars in the economics of religion. The treatment of topics is interdisciplinary, comparative, as well as global in nature. Articles apply the economics of religion approach to contemporary issues such as immigrants in the United States and ask historical questions such as why Judaism as a religion promoted investment in education. The economics of religion applies economic concepts (for example, supply and demand) an…
The Economics of Sainthood (A Preliminary Investigation)
Saint making has been a major activity of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. The pace of sanctifications has picked up noticeably in the past several decades under the most recent two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This article explores the economics of sainthood, applying social science reasoning to understand the Church's choices on numbers and characteristics of saints, gauged by the location and socioeconomic attributes of the pe…
The Market Approach to the Rise of the Geluk School, 1419-1642
Religious pluralism characterized Tibetan Buddhism by the eleventh or twelfth century, allowing for the development of many schools and sects with little differentiation in religious products. The early Ming dynasty (1368-1424) saw a significant shift in policy on Tibetan affairs compared to the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Relative disengagement from Tibet translated into a liberalization of local politics, resulting in a shift from secul…
Religious Conversion in 40 Countries
Using data from the International Social Survey Program and the World Values Survey about current and former religious adherence, we calculate country-level religious-conversion rates for 40 countries. Drawing upon a theoretical model based on rational individual choice, we posit that the frequency of religious conversion depends on the cost of switching and the cost of having the “wrong” religion. Findings accord with several hypotheses: religio…
Global Compassion
This book examines how American foreign policy has shaped the relationship between international private voluntary organizations and the U.S. federal government. Private voluntary organizations (PVOs)—Americares Foundation, Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, CARE, World Vision, and Catholic Relief Services, to name just a few—perform a vital function. They are the expression of human caring overseas, a compassion that was formalized during Worl…
Private Voluntary Organizations Engaged in International Assistance, 1939-2004
U.S.-based private and voluntary organizations (PVOs) play an important role in international assistance. To assess this role, the authors constructed a new data set that covers more than 1,600 secular and religious PVOs that registered with the U.S. federal government between 1939 and 2004. In the post—World War II period, major revenue patterns are the rise of Evangelical PVOs, decline of Jewish PVOs, and rapid growth of secular PVOs from the m…
Economy, Religion and
The modern study of religion and economics begins with Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Smith applied his economic analysis to several aspects of religion that researchers since developed with quantitative research. Smith's fundamental contribution to the study of religion was that religious beliefs and activities are rational choices. As in commercial activity, people respond to religious costs …
Salvation, Damnation, and Economic Incentives
Doctrines of salvation and damnation of the major world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—provide different incentives for performing economic activities and charitable deeds. A comparative analysis of the four religions shows that each promotes accumulation of wealth and hard work, while discouraging idleness, debt, and poverty. The primary difference across the religions is with respect to charity. Religions that allow belie…
The Economics of Religion and Secularization
The secularization theory of economic development posits that material prosperity undermines the felt need for religious consolation and leads to religion playing a lesser role in culture and politics. However, this theory is too simple. There are complex reciprocal dynamics at work in the relationship between economic development and religion. While education often makes individuals less religious, conversely, religion has historically provided …
U.S.-Based Private Voluntary Organizations
We have constructed a new and substantial data set from 1939 to 2004 on U.S.-based private voluntary organizations (PVOs) engaged in international relief and development. The universe comprises PVOs registered with the federal government (U.S. Agency for International Development since the early 1960s). PVOs are classified by type among secular and 14 types of religious categories. Classifications were made for the date of founding and in 2004 (o…
Religion and Economy
Religion has a two-way interaction with political economy. With religion viewed as a dependent variable, a central question is how economic development and political institutions affect religious participation and beliefs. With religion viewed as an independent variable, a key issue is how religiosity affects individual characteristics, such as work ethic, honesty, and thrift, and thereby influences economic performance. In this paper, we sketch …
Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel
Two important theories of religiosity are the secularization hypothesis and the religion-market model. According to the former, sometimes called a demand-side theory, economic development reduces religious participation and beliefs. According to the latter, described as a supply-side theory, religiosity depends on the presence of a state religion, regulation of the religion market, suppression of organized religion under Communism, and the degree…
Which Countries Have State Religions?
Among 188 countries, 72 had no state religion in 2000,1970, and 1900; 58 had a state religion throughout; and 58 had 1 or 2 transitions. We use a Hotelling spatial competition model to analyze the likelihood that the religion market would be monopolized. Similar forces influence a government's decision to establish a state religion. Consistent with the model, the probability of state religion in 1970 and 2000 is increasing with the adherence rate…
International Determinants of Religiosity
Two important theories of religiosity are the secularization hypothesis and the religion-market model. According to the former theory, economic development reduces religious participation and beliefs. According to the latter theory, religiosity depends on the presence of a state religion, regulation of the religion market, suppression of organized religion under Communism, and the degree of religious pluralism. We assess the theories by using sur…
Religion and Economic Growth across Countries
Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth typically neglects the influence of religion. To fill this gap, this study uses international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth. To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, the estimation relies on instrumental variables suggested by an analys…
Guatemala's Postwar Prospects
Guatemala’s Postwar Prospects Rachel M. McCleary (bio) On 29 December 1996, the administration of Guatemalan president Alvaro Arzú and the commanders of the guerrilla movement Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) signed a comprehensive accord putting an end to the Central American country’s 36-year-old civil war. With a formal peace agreement signed, what prospects does Guatemala have for becoming a stable democracy? To what extent …
Religion and Economic Growth across Countries
Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth typically neglects the influence of religion. To fill this gap, this study uses international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth. To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, the estimation relies on instrumental variables suggested by an analys…
Religion and Economy
Religion has a two-way interaction with political economy. With religion viewed as a dependent variable, a central question is how economic development and political institutions affect religious participation and beliefs. With religion viewed as an independent variable, a key issue is how religiosity affects individual characteristics, such as work ethic, honesty, and thrift, and thereby influences economic performance. In this paper, we sketch …
Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel
Two important theories of religiosity are the secularization hypothesis and the religion-market model. According to the former, sometimes called a demand-side theory, economic development reduces religious participation and beliefs. According to the latter, described as a supply-side theory, religiosity depends on the presence of a state religion, regulation of the religion market, suppression of organized religion under Communism, and the degree…
Residential segregation, geographic proximity and type of services used
Religious Conversion in 40 Countries
Using data from the International Social Survey Program and the World Values Survey about current and former religious adherence, we calculate country-level religious-conversion rates for 40 countries. Drawing upon a theoretical model based on rational individual choice, we posit that the frequency of religious conversion depends on the cost of switching and the cost of having the “wrong” religion. Findings accord with several hypotheses: religio…
Salvation, Damnation, and Economic Incentives
Doctrines of salvation and damnation of the major world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—provide different incentives for performing economic activities and charitable deeds. A comparative analysis of the four religions shows that each promotes accumulation of wealth and hard work, while discouraging idleness, debt, and poverty. The primary difference across the religions is with respect to charity. Religions that allow belie…
Saints Marching In, 1590–2012
The Catholic Church has been making saints for centuries in the two‐stage process of beatification and canonization. We analyse determinants of numbers beatified and canonized (non‐martyrs) since 1590 across seven world regions. The number beatified is roughly proportional to a pope's tenure and a region's Catholic population, responds positively since the early 20th century to Catholic–Protestant competition and to secularization, and falls afte…
Guatemala's Postwar Prospects
Guatemala’s Postwar Prospects Rachel M. McCleary (bio) On 29 December 1996, the administration of Guatemalan president Alvaro Arzú and the commanders of the guerrilla movement Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) signed a comprehensive accord putting an end to the Central American country’s 36-year-old civil war. With a formal peace agreement signed, what prospects does Guatemala have for becoming a stable democracy? To what extent …
The International Community's Claim to Rights in Brazilian Amazonia
The ‘internationalization’ of Brazil's rainforest raises political and philosophical questions about the nature of rights and duties to preserve natural resources. The international community, particularly the United States, is arguing that it has a right to the preservation of the rainforest. As a corresponding duty, Brazil is being held uniquely responsible for the preservation of its Amazonian rainforest. Until the means (and burdens which att…
The Market Approach to the Rise of the Geluk School, 1419-1642
Religious pluralism characterized Tibetan Buddhism by the eleventh or twelfth century, allowing for the development of many schools and sects with little differentiation in religious products. The early Ming dynasty (1368-1424) saw a significant shift in policy on Tibetan affairs compared to the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Relative disengagement from Tibet translated into a liberalization of local politics, resulting in a shift from secul…
The International Community's Claim to Rights in Brazilian Amazonia
The ‘internationalization’ of Brazil's rainforest raises political and philosophical questions about the nature of rights and duties to preserve natural resources. The international community, particularly the United States, is arguing that it has a right to the preservation of the rainforest. As a corresponding duty, Brazil is being held uniquely responsible for the preservation of its Amazonian rainforest. Until the means (and burdens which att…
Guatemala
Essay| February 01 1996 Guatemala: Expectations for Peace Rachel M. McCleary Rachel M. McCleary Rachel M. McCleary traveled to Guatemala for the 1995 and 1996 elections as a member of the lnteramerican Institute for Human Rights, Center for Electoral Assessment and Promotion election observation team. She teaches in the department of government at Georgetown University and is the author of Dictating Democracy: The Coup of Jorge Serrano Ellas and …
Guatemala's Postwar Prospects
Guatemala’s Postwar Prospects Rachel M. McCleary (bio) On 29 December 1996, the administration of Guatemalan president Alvaro Arzú and the commanders of the guerrilla movement Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) signed a comprehensive accord putting an end to the Central American country’s 36-year-old civil war. With a formal peace agreement signed, what prospects does Guatemala have for becoming a stable democracy? To what extent …
Riding the Tiger
Riding the Tiger
International Determinants of Religiosity
Two important theories of religiosity are the secularization hypothesis and the religion-market model. According to the former theory, economic development reduces religious participation and beliefs. According to the latter theory, religiosity depends on the presence of a state religion, regulation of the religion market, suppression of organized religion under Communism, and the degree of religious pluralism. We assess the theories by using sur…
Religion and Economic Growth across Countries
Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth typically neglects the influence of religion. To fill this gap, this study uses international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth. To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, the estimation relies on instrumental variables suggested by an analys…
Which Countries Have State Religions?
Among 188 countries, 72 had no state religion in 2000,1970, and 1900; 58 had a state religion throughout; and 58 had 1 or 2 transitions. We use a Hotelling spatial competition model to analyze the likelihood that the religion market would be monopolized. Similar forces influence a government's decision to establish a state religion. Consistent with the model, the probability of state religion in 1970 and 2000 is increasing with the adherence rate…
U.S.-Based Private Voluntary Organizations
We have constructed a new and substantial data set from 1939 to 2004 on U.S.-based private voluntary organizations (PVOs) engaged in international relief and development. The universe comprises PVOs registered with the federal government (U.S. Agency for International Development since the early 1960s). PVOs are classified by type among secular and 14 types of religious categories. Classifications were made for the date of founding and in 2004 (o…
Religion and Economy
Religion has a two-way interaction with political economy. With religion viewed as a dependent variable, a central question is how economic development and political institutions affect religious participation and beliefs. With religion viewed as an independent variable, a key issue is how religiosity affects individual characteristics, such as work ethic, honesty, and thrift, and thereby influences economic performance. In this paper, we sketch …
Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel
Two important theories of religiosity are the secularization hypothesis and the religion-market model. According to the former, sometimes called a demand-side theory, economic development reduces religious participation and beliefs. According to the latter, described as a supply-side theory, religiosity depends on the presence of a state religion, regulation of the religion market, suppression of organized religion under Communism, and the degree…
Economy, Religion and
The modern study of religion and economics begins with Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Smith applied his economic analysis to several aspects of religion that researchers since developed with quantitative research. Smith's fundamental contribution to the study of religion was that religious beliefs and activities are rational choices. As in commercial activity, people respond to religious costs …
Salvation, Damnation, and Economic Incentives
Doctrines of salvation and damnation of the major world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—provide different incentives for performing economic activities and charitable deeds. A comparative analysis of the four religions shows that each promotes accumulation of wealth and hard work, while discouraging idleness, debt, and poverty. The primary difference across the religions is with respect to charity. Religions that allow belie…
The Economics of Religion and Secularization
The secularization theory of economic development posits that material prosperity undermines the felt need for religious consolation and leads to religion playing a lesser role in culture and politics. However, this theory is too simple. There are complex reciprocal dynamics at work in the relationship between economic development and religion. While education often makes individuals less religious, conversely, religion has historically provided …
Private Voluntary Organizations Engaged in International Assistance, 1939-2004
U.S.-based private and voluntary organizations (PVOs) play an important role in international assistance. To assess this role, the authors constructed a new data set that covers more than 1,600 secular and religious PVOs that registered with the U.S. federal government between 1939 and 2004. In the post—World War II period, major revenue patterns are the rise of Evangelical PVOs, decline of Jewish PVOs, and rapid growth of secular PVOs from the m…
Global Compassion
This book examines how American foreign policy has shaped the relationship between international private voluntary organizations and the U.S. federal government. Private voluntary organizations (PVOs)—Americares Foundation, Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, CARE, World Vision, and Catholic Relief Services, to name just a few—perform a vital function. They are the expression of human caring overseas, a compassion that was formalized during Worl…
The Market Approach to the Rise of the Geluk School, 1419-1642
Religious pluralism characterized Tibetan Buddhism by the eleventh or twelfth century, allowing for the development of many schools and sects with little differentiation in religious products. The early Ming dynasty (1368-1424) saw a significant shift in policy on Tibetan affairs compared to the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Relative disengagement from Tibet translated into a liberalization of local politics, resulting in a shift from secul…
Religious Conversion in 40 Countries
Using data from the International Social Survey Program and the World Values Survey about current and former religious adherence, we calculate country-level religious-conversion rates for 40 countries. Drawing upon a theoretical model based on rational individual choice, we posit that the frequency of religious conversion depends on the cost of switching and the cost of having the “wrong” religion. Findings accord with several hypotheses: religio…
Religion and the Spread of Human Capital and Political Institutions
Although often ignored, religion has profoundly shaped political and economic conditions around the world. This claim is suggested by three historical divergences: a divergence between Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim regions of Europe (these differences emerged after the Reformation and began to dissipate only after World War II); a divergence between Protestant and Catholic settler colonies in Oceania and the Americas; and a divergenc…
The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion
This book brings together scholars in the economics of religion. The treatment of topics is interdisciplinary, comparative, as well as global in nature. Articles apply the economics of religion approach to contemporary issues such as immigrants in the United States and ask historical questions such as why Judaism as a religion promoted investment in education. The economics of religion applies economic concepts (for example, supply and demand) an…
The Economics of Sainthood (A Preliminary Investigation)
Saint making has been a major activity of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. The pace of sanctifications has picked up noticeably in the past several decades under the most recent two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This article explores the economics of sainthood, applying social science reasoning to understand the Church's choices on numbers and characteristics of saints, gauged by the location and socioeconomic attributes of the pe…
Residential segregation, geographic proximity and type of services used
Saints Marching In, 1590–2012
The Catholic Church has been making saints for centuries in the two‐stage process of beatification and canonization. We analyse determinants of numbers beatified and canonized (non‐martyrs) since 1590 across seven world regions. The number beatified is roughly proportional to a pope's tenure and a region's Catholic population, responds positively since the early 20th century to Catholic–Protestant competition and to secularization, and falls afte…
Religion and Economic Growth
Empirical research on the determinants of economic growth has typically neglected the influence of religion.To fill this gap, we use international survey data on religiosity for a broad panel of countries to investigate the effects of church attendance and religious beliefs on economic growth.To isolate the direction of causation from religiosity to economic performance, we use instrumental variables suggested by our analysis of systems in which …
The Wealth of Religions
Political science (20 works) · Law (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (16 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (16 works) · Economics (15 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · History (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works)