TITLE:
A Model of the Religious Transition
AUTHORS:
Erich Gundlach, Martin Paldam
KEYWORDS:
Religious Transition; Religiosity; Religious Beliefs; Solow Model
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.2 No.5,
December
19,
2012
ABSTRACT: The religious transition is the decline of religiosity with rising levels of income. The empirical robustness of the transition has been demonstrated. It appears that the transition is driven by the substitution of scientific knowledge for religious beliefs, which characterizes the process of modern economic growth. This note models the substitution process. A Solow model with CES technology generates the transition path with endogenous growth and reveals a direct link between the substitution parameter and the estimated transition parameter.