How much value does religion add to the U.S. economy? According to a new study the effect of religion exceeds the revenue of the ten largest panies—including Apple, Google, Amazon, and bined. The study, recently published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, provides three estimates of the value of faith to U.S. society. The first and most conservative estimate takes into account only the revenues of faith-based organizations falling into several sectors (education, healthcare, local congregational activities, charities,...

My mother would be mortified by my behavior. Since before I could walk she warned me about “stranger danger”: Don’t get into a car with strangers; don’t accept candy from strangers; don’t’ go into a strangers house, etc. What would she think if she knew I had taken an Uber to an Airbnb? Growing up in the 1970s parents and teachers drilled into my young brain the idea that the most dangerous people in the world (aside from Commies) were...

Air pollution is now the world’s fourth-leading fatal health risk, causing one in ten deaths in 2013. According to a new study by the World Bank, the premature deaths due to air pollution costs the global economy about $225 billion in lost labor e, or about $5.11 trillion in welfare losses worldwide. That is about the size of the gross domestic product of India, Canada, and bined, notes the report While we tend to think of air pollution as occurring...

The US Review of Books recently analyzed Samuel Gregg’s latest book, For God and Profit. John E. Roper, the journalist who wrote the review, gave For God and Profit a “RECOMMENDED” rating. Beyond the rating, Roper, had some very positive remarks about Gregg’s book. He said this: The author knows he has his work cut out for him. Many Christians have been indoctrinated with a general distrust of both money and its effects on society. This often translates into the...

Every year, the U.S. es out with its report on es and poverty. And every year the same finding repeatedly surprises me. As economist David Henderson says, the report “always shows that there is mobility between e categories, even in the short run, and that poverty is temporary for most people in America who experience it. Virtually all reporters ignore it.” First, the bad news. The report reveals that during the 4-year period from 2009 to 2012, more than one...

Pope Francis recently referred to climate change as a sin in a message he gave on the world day of prayer. Research fellow at the Acton Institute, Dylan Pahman, had a lot to say about this in a new article at The Stream. mented on Francis’ message as well as analyzing the effects on the poor of some of the policy prescriptions that Francis has praised. He says: What seems to be lost on these hierarchs is what to do...

Note: This is the secondpost in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. To demonstrate how much of a good or service people are willing to buy at different prices, economists often use a graph called the demand curve. In this video, Marginal Revolution University revealswhat a demand curve is, explains “why people go crazy on Black Friday,” and shows how people respond to changes in the price of oil. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow,...

In its 2,000-year history, the church has actively integrated evangelism and social action in powerful and transformative ways. Yet for many of today’s Christians, we feel as though we must choose between a life of ministry and cultural engagement, that our vocational paths areinevitably torn between “saving souls” and “serving justice.” In the Bible, however, we seeboth calls woven together — “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28) and “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). Theywere...

Tomorrowis Constitution Day, a holiday celebrated in America every year on September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. Here are five facts you should know about the U.S. Constitution: 1. The Constitution contains 4,543 words, including the signatures and has four sheets, 28-3/4 inches by 23-5/8 inches each. It contains 7,591 words including the 27 amendments. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. 2. Thomas Jefferson did...

“If all of our working and all of our resting serves the same vocation of love, why do we so often feel out of balance?” In a recent talkfor theOikonomia Network, author and church historian Dr. Chris Armstrong offers a fascinating exploration of thequestion, challenging mon Christian responses on “work-life balance” andoffering a holistic framework forvocation, service, and spiritual devotion. Recounting a situation where hehimself wasfaced with frustrations about work and family life, Armstrong recalls the advice he received from...