Education, Social Mobility and Religious Movements: The Islamic Revival in Egypt

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Binzel, Christine; Carvalho, Jean-Paul
• 署名单位: Ruprecht Karls University Heidelberg; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of California System; University of California Irvine
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12416
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 2553-2580
• 关键词: institutions; revolution; sacrifice; WORLD; west; rise

摘要

Muslim societies have been reshaped in recent decades by an Islamic revival. We document a contemporaneous decline in social mobility among educated youth in Egypt, the epicentre of the movement in the Arab world. We then develop a model to show how an unexpected decline in social mobility combined with inequality can produce a religious revival led by the educated middle class. The principal idea is that religion helps individuals to cope with unfulfilled aspirations by adjusting their expectations-based reference point. By raising aspirations, economic development may make societies more prone to religious revivals.