Arbeitspapier
Not the opium of the people: Income and secularization in a panel of Prussian counties
The interplay between religion and the economy has occupied social scientists for long. We construct a unique panel of income and Protestant church attendance for six waves of up to 175 Prussian counties spanning 1886-1911. 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. But the association disappears in panel analyses, including first-differenced models of the 1886-1911 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.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 7151
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Cultural Economics: Religion
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: Pre-1913
- Subject
-
religion
secularization
Prussian economic history
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Becker, Sascha O.
Woessmann, Ludger
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
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Bonn
- (when)
-
2013
- Handle
- Last update
-
20.09.2024, 8:21 AM CEST
Data provider
This object is provided by:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Becker, Sascha O.
- Woessmann, Ludger
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2013
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