Monopolistic competitive market in religion: a case study of Hindu temples

Abstract

The objective of this article is to examine, based on field survey, the market behaviour of the Hindu temples in India. The cost and revenue functions have been estimated for the Hindu temples, and it has been found that the market of Hindu temples does not strictly follow the monopoly models. The estimated average revenue curve has been observed to be slightly negatively sloped. Moreover, like perfect competition here exist a large number of small temples with easy entry and exit. The actions of any single temple do not have significant impact on the other temples in the market. Thus is resembles the monopolistic competition model rather than the pure monopoly model.