Education Promoted Secularization

Sascha Becker, Markus Nagler and Ludger Woessmann

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900? Empirical studies using modern data mostly contradict the traditional view that education was a leading source of the seismic social phenomenon of secularization. We construct a unique panel dataset of advanced-school enrollment and Protestant church attendance in German cities between 1890 and 1930. Our cross-sectional estimates replicate a positive association. By contrast, in panel models where fixed effects account for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, education – but not income or urbanization – is negatively related to church attendance. In panel models with lagged explanatory variables, educational expansion precedes reduced church attendance.

Keywords: Secularization; education; history; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Education Promoted Secularization (2014)
Working Paper: Education Promoted Secularization (2014)
Working Paper: Education Promoted Secularization (2014)
Working Paper: Education Promoted Secularization (2014)
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