education & religion

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Apr 20 09:13:45 PDT 2001


"Education and Religion"

BY: EDWARD L. GLAESER

Harvard University

Department of Economics

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

BRUCE SACERDOTE

Dartmouth College

Department of Economics

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), at New

York

Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:

http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=263258

Paper ID: Harvard Institute of Economic Research Paper No. 1913

Date: January 2001

Contact: EDWARD L. GLAESER

Email: Mailto:eglaeser at harvard.edu

Postal: Harvard University

Department of Economics

Room 315A

Littauer Center

Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

Phone: 617-495-0575

Fax: 617-495-8570

Co-Auth: BRUCE SACERDOTE

Email: Mailto:Bruce.Sacerdote at dartmouth.edu

Postal: Dartmouth College

Department of Economics

6106 Rockefeller Hall

Hanover, NH 03755 USA

Paper Requests:

Contact: Gloria Gerrig, Mailto:ggerrig at harvard.edu ; Include

HIER paper number, title, author(s) names. Papers will be sent

with an invoice, $3 per paper USA, Canada; $4 International.

Postal: Harvard University, Department of Economics, Littauer

Room 200; Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: (617)495-4234. Fax:

617-495-7730.

ABSTRACT:

In the United States, religious attendance rises sharply with

education across individuals, but religious attendance declines

sharply with education across denominations. This puzzle is

explained if education both increases the returns to social

connection and reduces the extent of religious belief. The

positive effect of education on sociability explains the

positive education-religion relationship. The negative effect of

education on religious belief causes more educated individuals

to sort into less fervent religions, which explains the negative

relationship between education and religion across

denominations. Cross-country differences in the impact of

education on religious belief can explain the large

cross-country variation in the education-religion connection.

These cross-country differences in the education-belief

relationship can be explained by political factors (such as

communism) which lead some countries to use state-controlled

education to discredit religion.



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