Prayer

Very basically, prayer can be understood as a means of mediation between the divine and the mundane. How such mediation occurs and what its effects may be are subjects of intense debate in religion and theology. Although inquiries pertaining to the intersection of prayer and economics have not attracted significant interest within economics, existing studies have drawn connections between prayer and its effects on various economic sectors. However, more recent research suggests a different direction of inquiry, one that focuses on the content of religion and, thus, understands prayer as an ontological practice.

For the sake of simplicity, two general and extremely broad categories of prayer will be addressed in relation to economics. The first category, petitionary prayer, understands prayer as a petition to its object ...