Volume 52, Issue 2 p. 874-895

PROTESTANTISM AND EDUCATION: READING (THE BIBLE) AND OTHER SKILLS

TIMO BOPPART

TIMO BOPPART

Boppart : Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, Stockholm 10405, Sweden; Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich 8032, Switzerland. Phone +46 8 16 3552, Fax +46 8 16 1443, E-mail [email protected]

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JOSEF FALKINGER

JOSEF FALKINGER

Falkinger : Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich 8032, Switzerland; CESifo, Munich; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany. Phone +41 44 634 2291, Fax +41 44 634 4996, E-mail [email protected]

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VOLKER GROSSMANN

VOLKER GROSSMANN

Grossmann : Department of Economics, University of Fribourg, Fribourg 1700, Switzerland; CESifo, Munich; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany. Phone +41 26 300 9383, Fax +41 26 300 9678, E-mail [email protected]

We are grateful to Christian Dustmann, Guy Kirsch, Aderonke Osikominu, and two anonymous referees for valuable discussions. Moreover, we thank the participants at the annual meeting of the Verein für Socialpolitik 2011 in Frankfurt, Germany for helpful comments and suggestions. We are particularly indebted to Ulrich Woitek and Gabriela W üthrich for providing us with the data and some historical background.

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First published: 25 February 2014
Citations: 29

Abstract

During industrialization, Protestants were more literate than Catholics. This paper investigates whether this fact may be led back to the intrinsic motivation of Protestants to read the bible and to what extent other education motives might have been involved as well. We employ a historical data set from Switzerland which allows us to differentiate between different cognitive skills: reading, numeracy, essay writing, and Swiss history. We develop an estimation strategy to examine whether the impact of religious denomination was particularly large with respect to reading capabilities. We find support for this hypothesis. However, we also find evidence which is consistent with the view that Protestants' education motives went beyond acquiring reading skills. (JEL I20)

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