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Wiley InterScience | |||||||||
  American Journal of Economics and SociologyVolume 66 Issue 4, Pages 747 - 763 Published Online: 17 Oct 2007 © 2010 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 94K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  Religious Market Competition and Clergy Salary: Evidence from SBC Congregations in the South *Michelle W. Trawick, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Economics at Western Kentucky University; e-mail: michelle.trawick@wku.edu. Professor Trawick's interests include the economics of religion, economics of crime, and education economics; recently, she has published in Applied Economics, Applied Economics Letters, and Education Economics. Stephen E. Lile, Ph.D., is a Professor of Economics at Western Kentucky University; e-mail: steve.lile@wku.edu. Professor Lile's current research interests include the economics of religion. His publications have been in Journal of Applied Economics and Policy, Kentucky Journal of Economics and Business, National Tax Journal, Public Finance Review, and Essays in Economic and Business History. Correspondence should be addressed to either author at Department of Economics, Western Kentucky University, 1906 College Heights Blvd. # 11059, Bowling Green, KY 42101-1059. Copyright 2007 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc. ABSTRACTAbstract. We utilize a rich and unique data source covering 13,825 Southern Baptist Convention churches in seven Southern states to test the impact of religious market competition, or pluralism, on clergy salary. We link county-level religious market and socioeconomic data to the county in which each church is located. Two measures of religious output market are used. One is a narrow output market definition calculated using only SBC churches. The other is a more broadly defined measure calculated using 132 Judeo-Christian denominations. Using regression analysis, we conclude that greater concentration among Southern Baptist Churches' members within a given county area has a positive, and statistically significant, impact on Southern Baptist clergy salaries, while greater concentration among other denominations has no impact on Southern Baptist clergy salaries. Most importantly, we show that Southern Baptist Churches exhibit predictable economic behavior despite the ethereal nature of the product they provide. | 
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