BisinCarvalhoVerdier CulturalTransmissionandReligion
This chapter surveys the economics of cultural transmission with a focus on religion, centering on the Bisin‑Verdier endogenous socialization model that links evolutionary dynamics of cultural traits to family socialization decisions. It examines how religious legitimacy can empower clerics, creating a feedback loop between institutional change and the diffusion of religious values, leading to multiple possible equilibria—a strong religious state or a secular state—depending on historical initial conditions. The authors apply this framework to explain the divergent trajectories of the Christian West and Muslim East, and to analyze the secularizing impact of the Protestant Reformation, which reallocated resources from religious to secular institutions and reshaped human‑capital formation. The chapter highlights extensions of the core model, including endogenous fertility, homophily, identity formation, spatial segregation, and the influence of top‑down actors such as churches, media, and education. It discusses political‑economy implications of religious legitimacy, demographic strategies of religious groups, and outlines promising avenues for future empirical work, especially contrasting models with and without religious leaders. An appendix derives the replicator dynamic, providing the mathematical foundation for the cultural evolution dynamics used throughout the chapter.
Topics
Core Bisin‑Verdier Cultural Transmission Model & Replicator Dynamics
An endogenous socialization framework that links family decisions on cultural transmission to evolutionary replicator dynamics, accommodating both discrete and continuous traits and providing the mathematical foundation for the chapter’s analysis.
Political Economy of Religious Legitimacy and Clerical Power
Explores how religious legitimacy enables clerics and political elites to extract resources, shape institutions, and create feedback loops between institutional change and the diffusion of religious values.
Multiple Equilibria and Dynamic Complementarity
The model predicts two long‑run stationary states—a strong religious state or a secular state—driven by initial conditions and the complementarity between cultural transmission and institutional structures.
Divergent Historical Paths of the Christian West and Muslim East
Applies the political‑economy framework to explain why the West secularized while the Muslim East retained strong religious institutions, emphasizing elite‑religious elite relationships.
The Protestant Reformation as a Secularizing Shock
Case study showing how Protestant competition reallocated wealth from monasteries to secular authorities, altered human‑capital formation, and spurred investment in secular infrastructure.
Model Extensions: Fertility, Homophily, Identity, and Segregation
Incorporates endogenous fertility choices, network homophily, identity formation, and spatial segregation into the cultural transmission dynamics.
Top‑Down Religious Actors and Cultural Coordination
Examines the influence of centralized institutions—churches, media, schools, and the state—on the diffusion, coordination, and potential radicalization of religious beliefs.
Demographic Strategies of Religious Groups
Analyzes how religious leaders shape marriage and fertility norms (e.g., Catholic pro‑natalism in Northern Ireland, Haredi fertility in Israel) to sustain belief transmission across generations.