Paul Seabright: The divine economy—how religions compete for wealth, power, and people

The Divine Economy by Paul Seabright is an ambitious attempt to answer several big questions about religion using the tools of economics. Building on Iannaccone’s (1992) club good model, Seabright argues that religious movements should be understood as more than just clubs or firms; rather, they are “a special kind of business—they are platforms” or “organizations that facilitate relationships that could not form, or could not function as effectively, in the platforms’ absence” (p. 17). This thesis is simple, compelling, and a genuine contribution to the economics of religion literature, as it shifts attention to what religions produce, who produces it, and for whom, and places the members of a religion at the center of each. In Seabright’s formulation, people join religions for the benefits they can receive, with the primary benefit being access to the network. Unlike the traditional view, however, his platform model recognizes members not only as primary beneficiaries, but also as core organizational assets whose ongoing participation generates and sustains the value of the network itself. …