Economic Modeling of the Behavior of Revival Churches in a Static Setting

Abstract

This article is a contribution to the growing literature on the economics of religion. Indeed, to our knowledge, there is no study aimed at explaining the behavior of a revival church from a theoretical model. More precisely, we consider a household which, to maximize its usefulness, claims to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit, becomes a pastor and transforms its habitat into a church. He allocates his time in such a way as to attract and maintain faithful who, born again, offer their work in religious activity and/or make financial contributions. We show that the behavior of revival or awakened churches (Evangelical, Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal, charismatic or prophetic) is fundamentally determined by the economic context: the level of employability, on the one hand, and the gap between the salary outside the church habitat and the internal salary fixed by the household-pastor to remunerate religious activity, on the other hand. In addition, we argue that in Africa, Revival Churches officiate in a context of unemployment and employ the maximum number of faithful in church activities and improvement. In return, they receive a remuneration lower than that of the labor market (case 4).