Does Religion Influence Educational Attainment?

Abstract

There is a relatively large literature on the association between educational attainment and religious affiliation. This work, which is dominated by studies from the United States, has largely escaped the attention of Australian researchers, where the religious tapestry differs markedly from the United States. To examine these associations, we estimated a series of econometric models using data from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey. We find support for the contention that religion does have statistically significant effects on educational attainment, even when controls are included for a vast array of variables that are often used to explain these associations.