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

Benjamin W. Arold, Ludger Woessmann and Larissa Zierow
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Benjamin W. Arold: University of Cambridge
Larissa Zierow: Reutlingen University, CESifo

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

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 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 JEL Classification: Z12; I28; H75 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... tions/wp732.2024.pdf

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