DP9884 Education Promoted Secularization

Author(s):	Sascha O. Becker, Markus Nagler, Ludger Woessmann
Publication Date:	March 2014
Keyword(s):	Education, Germany, History, Secularization
JEL(s):	I20, N33, Z12
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics, Economic History
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=9884

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.