Religion and earnings: evidence from the NLS Youth Cohort

Does religious and denominational background still affect earnings and human capital investment? Several earlier studies suggest that they do, but all of these previous studies were conducted on data from the 1970s and early 1980s. Examines religious background and human capital formation for a sample of males from the National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort (1991). Provides survey information that makes it possible to control better the many components of family background in order to isolate the impact of religion and denomination. Uses the estimation of human capital earnings functions similar to Tomes' (1984) method. Finds that men raised as Catholics or Jews have higher incomes than men raised as Protestants, other things being held equal. When the dependent variable used for the analysis is the logarithm of hourly wages, men raised either as Catholics or Jews were also found to have higher wages. Contains results from analyses of men within various Protestant denominations, as well as results for different racial and ethnic groups.