%0 Journal Article %T A economia da religi£¿o e seus fundamentos: teste de um modelo de escolha religiosa %A Oliveira %A L¨ªvio Luiz Soares de %A Cortes %A Renan Xavier %A Balbinotto Neto %A Gi¨¢como %J Estudos Econ£¿micos (S£¿o Paulo) %D 2011 %I Instituto de Pesquisas Econ?micas da FEA-USP %R 10.1590/S0101-41612011000400006 %X this paper aim, based on the literature of economics of religion, to the premise of human rationality related to religious behavior. are discussed concepts and definitions of the economics of religion, the object of interest in this discipline, ie, the most important issues, and discuss briefly the origin and evolution of discipline. rational choice and consumer theory applied to the religion, two of the theoretical fundamentals of economics of religion are discussed. as an empirical contribution, we carried out a test of a model of religious choice employing the technique of discriminant analysis. finally, we discuss the advantages, objections and criticisms regarding the rational choice theory of religion. %K religion %K economics of religion %K rational choice. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0101-41612011000400006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en