Protestantism and Education: Reading (the Bible) and Other Skills
Journal
Economic Inquiry
ISSN
0095-2583
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2014
Author(s)
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.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
None
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Volume
52
Number
2
Start page
874
End page
895
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
261585
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
BFG 1.pdf
Size
446.23 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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