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The work of Jody Lipford, Robert E. McCormick and Robert D. Tollison shows that church membership and social misbehavior are negatively related. A research study provides the framework of an economic theory of church behavior and confirms the theory via less aggregated US county statistics. Churches were shown to encourage the appropriate behavior because it benefits churches and church members alike. Property rights enforcement is found to increase at a diminishing rate as church membership increases.

The Church can be a major underlying institution in a society, with religious doctrines concerning the afterlife fundamentally based on economic methodology. The Church plays a significant role in promoting socially beneficial behaviour and enforcing property rights in the same way as families and the government. Religion in cultures with no powerful central government enforces the concept of an unpleasant afterlife for those who misbehave and an attractive afterlife for those who behave.