Religious Affiliation and Wrongdoing: Evidence from U.S. Nursing Homes

We explore the relationship between organizational religious affiliation and wrongdoing using a unique data set on inspections in 16,101 nursing homes over five years. find that violations of standards care are more severe religiously affiliated homes. track this difference to reduction likelihood members file complaints rather than poorer behaving caretakers or differential treatment by enforcement agents. Fewer increase time operate without monitoring, which allows escalate before they detected. Our findings highlight an understudied process literature wrongdoing: Although much attention has been devoted how inspector bias can lead incorrect conclusions about true rates across organizations, similarly conclusions—but through internal process. This paper was accepted Lamar Pierce, organizations. Supplemental Material: The files online appendices available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4350 .