Chris Coyne is an assistant professor of economics at West Virginia University. He also serves as editor of "The Review of Austrian Economics," as well as a research fellow for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is the author of the book "After the War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy."

Dr. Hilton Root, an academic and policy specialist in international political economy and development, joined the faculty of the School of Public Policy at George Mason University in the summer of 2006. In 2007 he joined the Mercatus Center as an affiliated senior scholar. His areas of expertise are international economics, economic development and policy reform, and Asian affairs.

Hurricane Katrina caused over one hundred billion dollars in property damage in the Greater New Orleans region. Although much attention has been paid to why particular communities have begun to recover and others have failed to rebound, very little attention has been paid to how the communities that have recovered actually went about doing so. This paper attempts to close that gap by examining how the church provision of club goods can foster social cooperation and community redevelopment in the wake of a disaster.