Church Membership and Economic Recovery: Evidence from the 2005 Hurricane Season

Abstract

This paper investigates the critical role of church membership in the process of economic recovery after high-impact natural disasters. We document a significant adverse treatment effect of the 2005 hurricane season in the Southeastern United States on establishment-level productivity. However, we find that establishments in counties with higher rates of church membership saw a significantly stronger recovery in terms of productivity for 2005-2010. We also show that church membership is correlated with post-disaster entrepreneurship activities and population growth.