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Witchcraft Beliefs, Social Relations, and Development

Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics

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Abstract

Beliefs in witchcraft, or the ability of certain people to intentionally cause harm via supernatural means, have been documented across societies all over the world. Extensive ethnographic research on this phenomenon over the past century explored the many roles of witchcraft beliefs in communities highlighting both their social functions and detrimental consequences. Yet, empirical evidence based on systematic statistical analyses or experiments has been lacking until very recently. This chapter reviews the nascent literature on witchcraft beliefs in economics and other quantitative social sciences and summarizes the main directions and results of this research to date. The major themes discussed in the chapter include social relations, economic development, and institutions in their connection to witchcraft beliefs.

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Acknowledgements

Responsible Section Editor: Olga Popova. The author is grateful to Tina Mumladze and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on the manuscript. There is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC, USA

    Boris Gershman

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  1. Boris Gershman
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Correspondence to Boris Gershman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-MERIT & Princeton University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

Section Editor information

  1. Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), Regensburg, Germany

    Olga Popova

  2. CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Olga Popova

  3. Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation

    Olga Popova

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Gershman, B. (2022). Witchcraft Beliefs, Social Relations, and Development. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_253-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_253-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Witchcraft Beliefs, Social Relations, and Development
    Published:
    08 June 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_253-2

  2. Original

    Witchcraft Beliefs, Social Relations, and Development
    Published:
    26 March 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_253-1

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