Hey all,
I bumped into these papers while searching for some game-theoretic analyses about religion. I perused the first 5 pages of the article below, and thought it might be something that people here find interesting. Looks like Iannaccone and his "Economics of Religion" are the source articles.
The vision behind the simulations is that religion is a way of generating "religious capital" (resources). The "strictness" of the religion limits the number of "free-loaders" who take resources while contributing no "religious capital". Some "free-loaders" are allowed, as investments in possible future contributions to the system, and to make the system self-sustaining.
Why Churches Need Free-riders: Religious Capital Formation and Religious Group Survival
Ben
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