[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/amu/wpaper/1508.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Religion, Social Capital, and Business Bankruptcy in the United States, 1921-1932

Author

Listed:
  • Bradley A. Hansen
  • Mary Eschelbach Hansen
Abstract
We consider the value of social capital that derives from membership in a church. American states with larger churchgoing populations had lower business bankruptcy rates from 1921 to 1932, and states in which the churchgoing population was concentrated in few churches had business bankruptcy rates that were lower still. Both voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy were lower in states with higher church membership. The evidence suggests that church membership acted on bankruptcy through a safety net mechanism and not solely through indicating a preference for honoring commitment.

Suggested Citation

  • Bradley A. Hansen & Mary Eschelbach Hansen, 2008. "Religion, Social Capital, and Business Bankruptcy in the United States, 1921-1932," Working Papers 2008-15, American University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:1508
    DOI: 10.17606/ffkw-nk58
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17606/ffkw-nk58
    File Function: First version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17606/ffkw-nk58?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Bishop, 2017. "Spatial variations in personal insolvency choices: The role of stigma and social capital," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(16), pages 3738-3754, December.
    2. K. Parboteeah & Sascha Walter & Jörn Block, 2015. "When Does Christian Religion Matter for Entrepreneurial Activity? The Contingent Effect of a Country’s Investments into Knowledge," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 447-465, August.
    3. Feng, Yuruo & Hao, Wei & Fang, Jiali & Wongchoti, Udomsak, 2024. "In the radiance of enlightenment: The influence of nontheistic religions on corporate default risk," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    4. Hansen, Mary Eschelbach & Hansen, Bradley A., 2012. "Crisis and Bankruptcy: The Mediating Role of State Law, 1920–1932," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 448-468, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business bankruptcy; church membership; social capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N22 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • N82 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • K29 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:1508. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Meal (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.