The impact of education on time spent in religious activities: evidence from Turkey

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of increased education, due to an exogenous education reform, on time spent in religious activities by utilizing the Turkish Time Use Survey data. The education reform significantly rises individuals’ years of schooling. We also document that for women, increased education has a negative causal impact on the allocation of time to religious activities. However, there are no significant effects of education on men’s time spent in religious activities. As a result, we suggest that education plays an important role in altering individuals’ religious behaviour through its effects on preferences.