TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Arold, W. Benjamin
AU  - Woessmann, Ludger
AU  - Zierow, Larissa
        TI  - Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education
        PY  - 2022/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 14989
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp14989
        AB  - We study whether compulsory religious education in schools affects students' religiosity as adults. We exploit the staggered termination of compulsory religious education across German states in models with state and cohort fixed effects. Using three different datasets, we find that abolishing compulsory religious education significantly reduced religiosity of affected students in adulthood. It also reduced the religious actions of personal prayer, church-going, and church membership. Beyond religious attitudes, the reform led to more equalized gender roles, fewer marriages and children, and higher labor-market participation and earnings. The reform did not affect ethical and political values or non-religious school outcomes.
        KW  - religious education
KW  - religiosity
KW  - school reforms
        ER  -