Voluntary Contributions and Monitoring Efforts: Revealed Preference for the Services of Religious Organizations

Abstract

Azzi and Ehrenberg (1975) examined the determinants of one of the principal forms of participation in religious organizations, namely church attendance. Their model postulated three principal motivations for participating in religious organizations: (1) an afterlife motive incorporated the parishioner's belief that current participation in church activities is related to a stream of benefits extending beyond death; (2) current satisfaction derived from the activities of the church; and (3) social pressure induced participation. (Azzi and Ehrenberg related social pressure to chances of job promotion, but the range of social pressure seems likely to be wider than that.) This article treats the other side of participation in religious organizations: the level of monetary contributions. In the United States these contributions are voluntary, substantial, and highly variable. The mean per capita contribution among the sample denominations ranged from forty-three dollars to two hundred and twentyseven dollars annually during the 1959 to 1961 period. In formulating hypotheses to explain the variation in levels of contributions to religious organizations, it is important to begin with the observation that, at least formally, consumption of the services of organized religions in the mid-twentieth century is nonexclusionary; one person's participation does not normally detract from the ability of others to enjoy any given religious program since services and activities are expressly designed for groups. Further, explicit user charges (most notably pew rentals) have almost entirely disappeared, so that now individuals are not likely to be denied admittance to religious observances or other church activities on the basis of failure to contribute a fair share financially. The combination of voluntary payments and nonexclusionary consumption provides a general framework for analyzing variations in the level of monetary contributions to religious organizations. These two characteristics mark religious services as an instance of a public good. One would predict that organizations which supply religious services are therefore likely to be subject to the same problems as other providers of public goods voluntary contributions systematically fall short of