Generous Gifts May Mean Empty Pews, Study Finds

By Elizabeth Schwinn

Do people sometimes treat their gifts to churches and other religious institutions as a substitute for attendance at services? The answer is Yes, according to an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The economist Jonathan Gruber analyzed data from two national surveys that have collected information for more than two decades on the giving and church attendance habits of Americans. He found that, over time, each 1-percent rise in charitable giving coincided with a 1.1-percent drop in attendance.

If Congress, which has considered allowing people who don’t itemize on their taxes to claim deductions, were to provide donors with added incentives to contribute to charity, “it would increase the level of giving, but would also lower the level of religious participation in the U.S.,” said Mr. Gruber.

Copies of Mr. Gruber’s report, “Pay or Pray? The Impact of Charitable Subsidies on Religious Attendance,” may be purchased online for $5 each from the National Bureau of Economic Research at http://www.nber.org/papers/w10374.