Human capital affects religious identity: Causal evidence from Kenya
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Alfonsi, Livia; Bauer, Michal; Chytilova, Julie; Miguel, Edward
署名单位：
Harvard University; Charles University Prague; Charles University Prague; Czech Academy of Sciences; Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research
刊物名称：
JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
ISSN/ISSBN：
0304-3878
DOI：
10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103215
发表日期：
2024
关键词：
摘要：
We study how human capital and economic conditions causally affect the choice of religious denomination. We utilize a longitudinal dataset monitoring the religious history of more than 5000 Kenyans over twenty years, in tandem with a randomized experiment (deworming) that has exogenously boosted education and living standards. The main finding is that the program reduces the likelihood of membership in a Pentecostal denomination up to 20 years later, when respondents are in their mid-thirties, while there is a comparable increase in membership in traditional Christian denominations. The effect is concentrated and statistically significant among a sub-group of participants who benefited most from the program in terms of increased education and income. The effects are unlikely due to increased secularization because the program does not reduce measures of religiosity. The results help explain why the global growth of the Pentecostal movement, sometimes described as a New Reformation, is centered in low-income communities.