732/2024 Benjamin W. Arold, Ludger Woessmann, and Larissa Zierow

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 higher labor-market participation and earnings. The reform did not affect ethical and political values or non-religious school outcomes.

Culture, Behaviour and Development