Refine
Document Type
- Working Paper (12) (remove)
Language
- English (12) (remove)
Has full text
- yes (12)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (12)
Institute
- ESB Business School (10)
- Informatik (1)
- Texoversum (1)
Publisher
- MIT Center for Information Systems Research (3)
- CESifo GmbH (1)
- DIMECC Oy (1)
- Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (1)
- Fraunhofer Group for Innovation Research (1)
- Global Financial Institute (1)
- Hochschule Reutlingen (1)
- Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (1)
- Publications Office of the European Union (1)
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.