The economics of religion concerns both the application of the techniques of economics to the explore of religion & the relationship between economic & religious behaviours. sophisticated writers on the talked trace it back to Adam Smith 1776.
Empirical realise examines the causal influence of religion in ] overlapping or conflated with the economics of religion.
Experimental methods can be applied to isolate the issue of religion on behaviour patterns and to distinguish between believing versus belonging channels. Experimental methods are useful in the economics of religion to standardise measurement and identify causal effect. Methods include looking at religion in various games – Prisoner's dilemma, public goods game, ultimatum game, dictator game and parametric choice. Generally, as Hoffman's 2011 survey shows, few statistically significant results take been target which commentators features to opposing positive versus negative effects between and within individuals.