Nuns and the effects of catholic schools. Evidence from Vatican II

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu This paper examines the causal effects of Catholic schooling on educational attainment. Using a novel instrumental-variable approach that exploits an exogenous shock to the Catholic school system, we show that the positive correlation between Catholic schooling and student outcomes is explained by selection bias. Spearheaded by the universal call to holiness and the opening to lay leadership, the reforms that occurred at the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) in the early 1960s produced a dramatic exogenous change in the cost/benefit ratio of religious life in the Catholic Church. The decline in vocations that followed contributed to a significant increase in costs and, in many cases, to the closure of Catholic schools. We document that this decline was heterogeneous across US dioceses, and that it was more marked in those dioceses governed by a liberal bishop. Merging diocesan data drawn from the Official Catholic Directory and the US Census, we show that that the variation in the supply of female religious teachers across US dioceses is strongly related to Catholic schooling. Using the abrupt decline in female vocations as an instrument for Catholic schooling, we find no evidence of positive effects on student outcomes. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SJEL Classification: I20, J24, N3

From Empty Pews to Empty Cradles: Fertility Decline Among European Catholics

“…Nuns stopped wearing distinctive habits, popular but mythical saints were dropped from the official catalog, mass was no longer said in Latin, confession became optional (and hence rare), and "meatless" Fridays ceased to be required. 6 Gihleb and Giuntella (2017) use this sharp decline to show that the causal (as opposed to selection) effect of Catholic school attendance on student outcomes is negligible.…”

The Effect of Islamic Secondary School Attendance on Academic Achievement

“…Revised estimates of Catholic school effect obtained by Altonji, Elder and Taber do not suggest a positive impact on learning outcomes. More recent research also rejects the claim in favour of a positive causal relationship between faith schools attendance and learning outcomes in the UK (Gibbons and Silva, 2011) and the US (Gihleb and Giuntella, 2013;Elder and Jepsen, 2014).…”

CEO's Religious Affiliation and Managerial Conservatism

“…The motivation for Vatican II was to arrest the increasing secularization of Catholics, mainly in Europe and North America, and make Catholicism more relevant to its followers. Gihleb and Giuntella () describe this rare event as a “religious earthquake.” The Council aimed to make Catholicism more accessible to its adherents by updating the major features of Catholic doctrines and practices making these doctrines more pertinent to the followers’ everyday lives. As a result of the presentation of Holy Mass in a vernacular language and the participation of laymen in the various activities of the church, the adherents not versed in Latin, who previously did not fully comprehend the messages of the Church, now had a clearer understanding of its teachings and traditions.…”