Churches as Social Insurance: Oil Risk and Religion in the U.S. South
研究发现20世纪美国南部石油依赖带来的风险促进了宗教社区扩张，教堂提供社会保险，减少负面油价冲击后失业率上升约30%。
Religious communities are important providers of social insurance. We show that risk associated with oil dependence facilitated the proliferation of religious communities throughout the U.S. South during the twentieth century. Known oil abundance predicts higher rates of church membership, which are not driven by selective migration or local economic development. Consistent with a social insurance channel, greater oil price volatility increases effects, while greater access to credit, state-level social insurance, and private insurance crowd out effects. Religious communities limit spillovers of oil price shocks across sectors, reducing increases in unemployment following a negative shock by about 30 percent.