Specialization and rent-seeking in moral enforcement: The case of confession

Moral codes are produced and enforced by more or less specialized means and are subject to standard economic forces. This paper argues that the intermediary role played by the Catholic Church between God and Christians, a key difference from Protestantism, faces the standard trade-off of specialization benefits and agency costs. It applies this trade-off hypothesis to confession of sins to priests, an institution that epitomizes such intermediation, showing that this hypothesis fits cognitive, historical and econometric evidence better than a simpler rent-seeking story. In particular, Catholics who confess more often are observed to comply more with the moral code; however, no relationship is observed between mass attendance and moral compliance. The data also links the current decline in confession to the rise in education, which makes moral self-enforcement less costly, and to the productivity gap suffered by confession services, given its necessarily interpersonal nature.

On the Brazilian ground-rent appropriated by landowners

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a measurement of the portion of the Brazilian ground-rent appropriated by agrarian landowners during 1955-2005 and assesses its importance relative to other forms of surplus value appropriated in the Brazilian economy. In pursuing this task, the paper also puts forward original estimations of several time-series that are crucial for the study of Brazilian long-term growth and development. Finally, the paper combines the measurements obtained here with those advanced in (Grinberg, 2008, 2013b) to present an approximation to the evolution of the total Brazilian ground-rent during 1955-2005. The appendix presents the sources and methodology used for the estimations.

Receipt for Rent - 1867

A rent receipt for Mr. Cowan Sr. dated August 19th 1867. The amount paid is $1.50 to Canada Presbyterian Church in Thorold, 3months for July 1st to October 1st.

Receipt from St. Catharines and Welland Canal Gas Light Company for gas rent

Receipt from St. Catharines and Welland Canal Gas Light Company for gas rent, July 4, 1887.

Receipt from St. Catharines Water Works for water rent

Receipt from St. Catharines Water Works for water rent, Aug. 18, 1887.

Receipt from St. Catharines and Welland Canal Gas Light Company for gas rent

Receipt from St. Catharines and Welland Canal Gas Light Company for gas rent, Sept. 3, 1887.

Receipt from St. Catharines Water Works for water rent

Receipt from St. Catharines Water Works for water rent, Oct. 1, 1887.

Receipt from St. Catharines and Welland Canal Gas Light Company for gas rent

Receipt from St. Catharines and Welland Canal Gas Light Company for gas rent, Dec. 31, 1887.

Receipt from W.H. Eckhardt, Star Music Store, St. Catharines for rent of machine

Receipt from W.H. Eckhardt, Star Music Store, St. Catharines for rent of machine, Feb. 1, 1888.

Freedom for rent. Informal housing market of Caracas

For years it was believed that in Caracas an informal rental housing market did not exist. A survey (n:832) in seven informal areas shows the opposite. The article analyzes the socio-legal aspects and characteristics of the market: the negotiated property, the rent, the actors and the norms that regulate the market. It is concluded that the Venezuelan State, with its controls and social policies, has become the principal promoter of the informal rental market and that because of the freedom to rent, the poor are the real estate agents that contribute most to meeting the increasing demand for housing.

La formación de la Sociedad Feudal en Cantabria : la organización del territorio en los siglos IX y XIV.

En el siguiente material de referencia, diseñado para alumnos de COU, matriculados en la asignatura de Historia, se encuentra un amplio desarrollo de la formación de la organización feudal en el territorio cántabro. Las partes más importantes en las que se vertebra el libro, son: 1. La articulación feudal a través de la organizacióm social del valle. 2. La cristalización de la aldea. 3. La cristalización de una sociedad feudal. En cada apartado se exponen los hechos o reflexiones más significativos para el objeto de la investigación.

La crisi del sistema feudal. 'La crisis del sistema feudal'.

Material didáctico de Ciencias Sociales para Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Consta de una guía para el profesor y de material para el alumnado. El objetivo general es el estudio de la crisis del sistema feudal, a partir del modelo de vida de los antepasados, los elementos que favorecieron esta crisis y el cambio que supuso a nuevas formas de vida. El material para el alumnado se compone de los apartados temáticos siguientes: 1) El estilo de vida feudal. 2) La crisis medieval. 3) La evolución del sistema feudal.