Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education

Benjamin Arold, Ludger Woessmann and Larissa Zierow ()

No 309, Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition

Abstract: We study whether compulsory religious education in schools affects students’ religiosity as adults. We exploit the staggered termination of compulsory religious education across German states in models with state and cohort fixed effects. Using three different datasets, we find that abolishing compulsory religious education significantly reduced religiosity of affected students in adulthood. It also reduced the religious actions of personal prayer, church-going, and church membership. Beyond religious attitudes, the reform led to more equalized gender roles, fewer marriages and children, and higher labor-market participation and earnings. The reform did not affect ethical and political values or non-religious school outcomes.

Keywords: religious education; religiosity; school reforms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I28 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-01-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education (2024)
Working Paper: Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education (2022)
Working Paper: Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education (2022)
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