Working Paper: NBER ID: w16973
Authors: Daniel M. Hungerman
Abstract: For over a century, social scientists have debated how educational attainment impacts religious belief. In this paper, I use Canadian compulsory schooling laws to identify the relationship between completed schooling and later religiosity. I find that higher levels of education lead to lower levels of religious participation later in life. An additional year of education leads to a 4-percentage-point decline in the likelihood that an individual identifies with any religious tradition; the estimates suggest that increases in schooling can explain most of the large rise in non-affiliation in Canada in recent decades.
Keywords: education; religion; secularization; compulsory schooling laws
JEL Codes: I20; I28; Z12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| higher education levels (I23) | lower religious participation (Z12) |
| an additional year of schooling (A21) | 4 percentage-point increase in non-affiliation (I24) |
| rise in educational attainment (I24) | increase in non-affiliation (L39) |
| education (I29) | secularization (Z12) |
| compulsory schooling laws (I21) | higher education levels (I23) |