Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/96842 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 4684
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
secularization
education
history
Germany
JEL: 
Z12
N33
I20
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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