Religion, Religiosity and Educational Attainment: Evidence from the Compulsory Education System in England

Moffat, J.; Yoo, H.I

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of religion on the educational attainment of pupils in their final year of compulsory education in England. The results show that pupils that identify with any religion have better academic performance than other pupils, after controlling for various family, parental and neighbourhood characteristics. The outperformance is reinforced by previous attendance at religious classes but there is no similar effect from considering religion to be very important to their life. Allowing for religion-specific effects shows that Muslim pupils outperform Christian pupils although the performance of the latter group is boosted by attendance at religious classes.

Citation

Moffat, J., & Yoo, H. (2020). Religion, Religiosity and Educational Attainment: Evidence from the Compulsory Education System in England. Applied Economics, 52(4), 430-442. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2019.1646872

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 15, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jul 26, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Jul 16, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 26, 2021
• Journal: Applied Economics
• Print ISSN: 0003-6846
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-4283
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 430-442
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2019.1646872
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1326932