Can schools change religious attitudes? Evidence from German state reforms of compulsory religious education
- 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 a reform abolishing compulsory religious education significantly reduced the religiosity of affected students in adulthood. It also reduced the religious actions of personal prayer, church-going, and church membership. Beyond religious attitudes, and consistent with a shift towards worldly norms and economic activities, the reform led to higher labor-market participation and earnings. By contrast, the reform did not affect ethical and political values or non-religious school outcomes.
| Author of HS Reutlingen | Zierow, Larissa |
|---|---|
| URL: | https://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/10/02/jhr.0723-13023R2 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0723-13023R2 |
| ISSN: | 0022-166X |
| Published in: | The journal of human resources |
| Publisher: | University of Wisconsin Press |
| Place of publication: | Madison |
| Document Type: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Publication year: | 2026 |
| Page Number: | 54 |
| PPN: | Im Katalog der Hochschule Reutlingen ansehen |
| DDC classes: | 370 Erziehung, Schul- und Bildungswesen |
| Open access?: | Ja |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - CC BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International |
