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Measuring Religion from Behavior: Climate Shocks and Religious Adherence in Afghanistan

Author

Listed:
  • Oeindrila Dube
  • Joshua E. Blumenstock
  • Michael Callen
  • Michael J. Callen
Abstract
Religious adherence has been hard to study in part because it is hard to measure. We develop a new measure of religious adherence, which is granular in both time and space, using anonymized mobile phone transaction records. After validating the measure with traditional data, we show how it can shed light on the nature of religious adherence in Islamic societies. Exploiting random variation in climate, we find that as economic conditions in Afghanistan worsen, people become more religiously observant. The effects are most pronounced in areas where droughts have the biggest economic consequences, such as croplands without access to irrigation.

Suggested Citation

  • Oeindrila Dube & Joshua E. Blumenstock & Michael Callen & Michael J. Callen, 2022. "Measuring Religion from Behavior: Climate Shocks and Religious Adherence in Afghanistan," CESifo Working Paper Series 10114, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10114
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp10114.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Kelton Minor & Esteban Moro & Nick Obradovich, 2023. "Adverse weather amplifies social media activity," Papers 2302.08456, arXiv.org.
    2. Brummund, Peter & Makowsky, Michael D., 2024. "Monopsony and Local Religious Clubs: Evidence from Indonesia," IZA Discussion Papers 16999, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    religion; mobile phones; big data; climate; economic shocks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
    • Q10 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - General
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products

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