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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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
8080.
Length: Date of creation: Jan 2001 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8080
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Find related papers by JEL classification: J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
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Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silane & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 1998.
"The Quality of Goverment,"
NBER Working Papers
6727, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Edward L. Glaeser & Jose Scheinkman, 2000.
"Non-Market Interactions,"
NBER Working Papers
8053, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
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