Human capital affects religious identity: Causal evidence from Kenya

0585308 - NHÚ 2025 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Alfonsi, L. - Bauer, Michal - Chytilová, Julie - Miguel, E.
Human capital affects religious identity: Causal evidence from Kenya.
Journal of Development Economics. Roč. 167, March (2024), č. článku 103215. ISSN 0304-3878. E-ISSN 1872-6089
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA20-11091S; GA MŠMT(CZ) LL2303
Institutional support: RVO:67985998
Keywords : human capital * religious identity * Kenya
OECD category: Applied Economics, Econometrics
Impact factor: 5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103215

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.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0353018


Research data: OPENICPSR