Barak D. Richman is a professor of law at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He has written the paper “How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York.”

Robert D. Tollison, professor of economics at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., has expertise in the economics of religion. His books include, as co-author, Sacred Trust: The Medieval Church as an Economic Firm (Oxford University Press, 1996). He has co-written a draft manuscript, Economics and Christianity.

Sociologist Donald B. Kraybill is a Distinguished College Professor and senior research fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptists and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa. His books include, as co-author, Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).

Bong Joon Yoon is professor of economics at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He has written about religiosity, economics and life satisfaction.

Kenneth V. Greene is emeritus university distinguished professor of economics at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Greene has written about religiosity, economics and life satisfaction.

Metin Cosgel is professor of economics and department head at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. His research interests include the economic history of the Ottoman Empire and the political economy of religion. He co-wrote the papers “Religious Identity and Consumption” and “Rationality, Integrity, and Religious Behavior.”

Lanse P. Minkler associate professors of economics at the University of Connecticut in Storrs and director of socio-economic rights at the Human Rights Institute there. He co-wrote the papers “Religious Identity and Consumption” and “Rationality, Integrity, and Religious Behavior.”

Richard Sosis is an anthropology professor at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Read a paper he co-authored, “Scars for War: Evaluating Alternative Signaling Explanations for Cross-cultural Variance in Ritual Costs.”

An Oct. 3, 2004, New York Times article.