TY - JOUR
T1 - Not the opium of the people
T2 - income and secularization in a panel of prussian counties
AU - Becker, Sascha O.
AU - Woessmann, Ludger
PY - 2013/5
Y1 - 2013/5
N2 - The interplay between religion and the economy has long occupied social scientists. We construct a unique panel of income and Protestant church attendance using 175 Prussian counties, presented in six waves from 1886 to 1911. The data reveal a marked decline in church attendance coinciding with increasing income. The cross-section also shows a negative association between income and church attendance. The associations disappear in panel analyses, including first-differenced models of the 1886 to 1911 change, panel models with county and time fixed effects, and panel Granger-causality tests. The results cast doubt on causal interpretations of the religion-economy nexus in Prussian secularization.
AB - The interplay between religion and the economy has long occupied social scientists. We construct a unique panel of income and Protestant church attendance using 175 Prussian counties, presented in six waves from 1886 to 1911. The data reveal a marked decline in church attendance coinciding with increasing income. The cross-section also shows a negative association between income and church attendance. The associations disappear in panel analyses, including first-differenced models of the 1886 to 1911 change, panel models with county and time fixed effects, and panel Granger-causality tests. The results cast doubt on causal interpretations of the religion-economy nexus in Prussian secularization.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84879103601&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/aer.103.3.539
DO - 10.1257/aer.103.3.539
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84879103601
VL - 103
SP - 539
EP - 544
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
SN - 0002-8282
IS - 3
ER -