Rachel McCleary


Rachel M. McCleary is a lecturer in the Economics Department at Harvard University and a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
WWW rachelmccleary.com

Biography

McCleary has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1986, a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University in 1978 and a B.A. from Indiana University in 1974. Her work is interdisciplinary with theoretical grounding in the fields of political science, sociology and economics. Within these disciplines, she conducts research on the political economy of religion. Her research focuses on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. She studies how religious beliefs and practices influence productivity, economic growth and the maintenance of political institutions such as democracy. Her scholarly work in philosophy focuses on issues of moral agency, consciousness and reasoning.
Her and her husband Robert Barro's work was cited in the March 25, 2013, edition of Bloomberg.

Publications

Books

Journal articles and book chapters

  • "Religion and Economic Growth Across Countries", American Sociological Review, October 2003
  • , Milken Institute Review, April 2004
  • "Religion and Economy", Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology
  • "Which Countries Have State Religions?", Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2005
  • "Political Economy and Religion in the Spirit of Max Weber" in Victor Nee and Richard Swedberg, Spirit of Global Capitalism
  • "Religion and Economy", Journal of Economic Perspectives, spring 2006
  • "Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, June 2006
  • "Salvation, Damnation, and Economic Incentives", Journal of Contemporary Religion, January 2007
  • "The Economics of Religion and Secularization", The Review of Faith & International Affairs, spring 2007
  • , Policy Review 148, April – May 2008
  • "Private Voluntary Organizations Engaged in International Assistance, 1939–2004", Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 37, 2
  • "Religious Conversion in 40 Countries", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49, 1
  • "The Market Approach to the Rise of the Geluk School in Tibet, 1419–1642", The Journal of Asian Studies 69, 1 : pages 149-180
  • "The Economics of Sainthood", chapter in Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion
  • "Saints Marching In, 1590-2012",, Economica 83, 331 : pages 385–415
  • "Measuring the Presence of Protestants in Guatemala, 1882–2011", chapter in Brian J. Grim, Vegard Skirbekk, Gina A. Zurlo,, Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2017
  • "Pentecostals, Kinship, and Moral Economy in Guatemala", Journal Markets and Morals
  • "Protestants and Catholics and Educational Investment in Guatemala", chapter in Sriya Iyer, Jared Rubin, Jean-Paul Carvahlo, Advances in the Economics of Religion
  • "Opening the Fifth Seal Catholic Martyrs and Forces of Religious Competition", Journal of Religion and Demography, 7 : pages 92–122
  • "Protestant Innovative Evangelizing to Oral Cultures in Guatemala", chapter in Susan Fitzpatrick Behrens, David Orique, and Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity
  • "Catholic Martyrs of Latin America", Fé y Libertad, 5, 1
  • "Protestant Doctrinal Heterodoxy and Heterogeneity in Guatemala 1880s to 1950", chapter in Felipe Valencia Caicedo Roots of Underdevelopment in Latin America
  • "Catholic Child and Youth Martyrs, 1588-2022", Catholic Historical Review 108, 3 : pages 469-508

Working papers