Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Mobarak, Mushfiq

Abstract

Over the last half century, global religious affiliation to new Pentecostal denominations has grown rapidly, with this growth concentrated in low income countries. This thesis investigates one economic factor influencing this growth - rural-urban migration. Religious institutions attract members by serving as hosts for economic and social networks, a service which interacts strongly with the migration process. I present new evidence from Ghana to test the link between migration and religious affiliation, using data from the ISSER Northwestern-Yale Panel Survey (GSPS) and a survey of Pentecostal churches in Accra.In the first chapter, I consider the effect of migration on the religious affiliation of migrants. Migrants moving into cities especially value the network services that are provided by religious institutions, inducing conversion amongst migrant populations. I construct a series of shift-share instruments for migration, using exposure to price shocks in the mining, construction and manufacturing industries. I find that migration significantly increases Pentecostal affiliation, especially for migrants with few network connections in the city. In the second chapter, I examine the effect of rural-urban migration on village networks. Out-migration can weaken the ties between an origin household and the rest of the village network. I repeat the shift-share experiment in the first chapter, and conduct a series of empirical exercises to test the mechanism. I find that out-migration induces conversion for households at the origin. I present evidence consistent with the story that out-migrant households convert in response to weakening ties with the village network.

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