TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Becker, Sascha O.
AU  - Nagler, Markus
AU  - Woessmann, Ludger
        TI  - Education Promoted Secularization
        PY  - 2014/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 8016
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp8016
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - history
KW  - education
KW  - secularization
KW  - Germany
        ER  -