The Economic Value of Prayer in Marital Happiness: An Analysis of Evangelical and Catholic Couples

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Conclusions after reading the article:

1. The unquestionable importance of marriage and family for social life calls for various studies on the condition of these essential institutions. The reviewed article directly addresses this issue: the happiness of married couples.
2. The article presents research on the economic value of prayer in the context of marriage, considering the socio-cultural realities of sub-Saharan African countries. This can be regarded as original and novel.
3. Research on the interactions between religion, economics and human development is valuable for socio-political life, the condition of marriage and family, and religious life, especially in Africa.
4. The conclusions drawn from the research, which have been referenced and compared with other studies, are interesting. This material can also be used in the pastoral strategies of the Catholic Church and Protestant churches.
5. The authors' caution and critical assessment of the research results, as shown in the article, should be emphasised. On this occasion, the author outlined some more directions for research and scientific investigation.

Taking all this into account, as well as the current problems and changes in marriage and family, I request that the peer-reviewed article be published in Religions.

Author Response

This study nevertheless presents certain limitations. First, the focus on only two religious denominations may restrict the scope of the results and limit their generalization to other religious traditions or sociocultural contexts. Moreover, the use of cross-sectional data does not make it possible to capture the dynamic effects of prayer and faith on marital well-being over time; longitudinal data would provide a deeper understanding of these evolving relationships. Finally, some important contextual variables, such as participation in community life, the quality of marital communication, or family support, were not fully integrated into the econometric models and could play a moderating role in the relationship between the practice of prayer and marital happiness.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The topic formulation of the study is very exciting and interesting. I consider it a very good perspective to examine the contribution of non-market behaviors—in this case, praying—to well-being. What I find missing is some comparative data involving non-religious couples. For a reader who is a layperson in economics, it is not entirely clear how the monetary value of praying is derived; here, some additional explanation might be needed.

My further suggestions are the following:

1. The tables take up a very large number of pages in the study; they should somehow be made more compact.
2. There is a lot of redundancy in the text, especially at the end of Chapter 4 (Discussion) and in Chapter 5 (Conclusion); these repetitions should definitely be eliminated, and the analytical sections should be developed in more detail.

Author Response

Within the framework of this study, non-religious couples were not taken into account, which constitutes an additional limitation regarding the scope of the results. This restriction may influence the interpretation of the value attributed to prayer, as it is analyzed exclusively within couples who claim a religious practice.
The monetary value of prayer is presented in detail in Section 2.1, Theoretical Foundations. Based on Equation (1), the analysis relies on a utility function in which marital well-being depends on several determinants. In this framework, ( x ) represents the frequency of prayer within the couple, while ( y ) denotes the level of marital happiness.
This specification makes it possible to derive the marginal rate of substitution between prayer and income, interpreted as the implicit monetary value of prayer. This is obtained from the following expression:

∂y/∂x = - ( ∂v/∂x ) / ( ∂v/∂y )    (2) 

 

This ratio measures the relative contribution of prayer compared to income in the formation of marital happiness, by translating the implicit willingness to substitute a variation in income for a variation in the frequency of prayer. The final sections of the article have been adjusted in order to better reflect this analytical framework and to strengthen its theoretical and empirical coherence.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

This is a very unusual teme, but that is not the reason for my decision. Your methodology is completely wrong, so I cannot discuss far from that chapter. However, I would like to point out some marks:

1. The paper represents a mix of economy, psychology and sociology. Try to find more research on the topic.
2. Delete "The remainder of the article is organized as follows: Section 2 presents the Subjective Well-Being (SWB) valuation method, details the econometric model and survey data, Section 3 presents empirical results and discussion, and Section 4 concludes with the study’s implications and limitations". 
3. Try to find out more about methodology and statistics for nominal or dummy variables. For example, you cannot use M and SD values for denomination. Also, M is not the same as percent, as you conclude from Table 1.
4. Since we do not know which variables were (in)dependent, nor categorisation of answers, with completely wrong statistics, further reading of the manuscript makes no sense.

Author Response

We have carefully taken note of the comments made. However, it should be emphasized that the present study is explicitly grounded in the established literature on the economics of well-being and the economics of religion. The methodology adopted is based on a theoretical and empirical framework that is widely recognized and validated in leading international journals.
In particular, our approach is directly inspired by the work of Timothy Tyler Brown (A monetary valuation of individual religious behaviour: the case of prayer, Applied Economics, 2012), which constitutes a major reference in the monetary valuation of religious behaviors. In line with this literature, we employ a utility function in which subjective well-being depends on religious and socioeconomic variables, and we derive the implicit monetary value of prayer from the marginal rate of substitution between religious practice and income.
Furthermore, the dependent variable is clearly defined and documented in the article. As indicated in Tables 2, 3, and 4, it explicitly corresponds to happiness in marriage. The explanatory variables, including the frequency of prayer and the relevant socioeconomic characteristics, are also presented in detail. The econometric strategy adopted (probit and logit models) is consistent with the standards of the literature and appropriate to the nature of the dependent variable.
Thus, both the methodological choices and the interpretation of the results are embedded in a robust analytical framework that is coherent with previous studies, particularly those of Brown (2012), which reinforces the internal validity and the scientific relevance of our contribution.

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

I still believe that your methodology is wrong and I am not convinced because your paper is out of range in the pure economy field.

Author Response

Author’s response to the evaluation report (Reviewer 3)

Thank you for your comments. However, I remain convinced that the methodology used in my article is valid and well-justified within the framework of applied economics. You mention that the methodology is “erroneous,” yet you do not specify in what way it would be so. Advancing economic research requires both critical thinking and an open mind, especially when addressing relatively unexplored areas. The fact that few studies exist on a topic does not in itself render an approach incorrect.

To support this approach, I have shared with you the article by Timothy Tyler Brown, titled “A monetary valuation of individual religious behaviour: the case of prayer”, published in Applied Economics, which estimates the monetary value of religious behavior through prayer using the well-being valuation method.

Additionally, the article “The value of thoughts and prayers”  (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908268116 ) applies a similar approach. These works demonstrate that the use of economic methods to evaluate religious behaviors is recognized and practiced in the literature.

I am confident that it is with an open and constructive mindset that we can advance scientific research on these interdisciplinary topics.