Volume 19, Number 4 (Fall) 1984
Tomes, Nigel. 1984. “The Effects of Religion and Denomination on Earnings and the Returns to Human Capital.” Journal of Human Resources 19(4):472-488.
The effects of religious and denominational background on earnings and the returns to human capital are examined. When religious differences are constrained to be additive, apart from a Jewish differential, there is virtually no evidence that religious or denominational background affects earnings. This contrasts with Greeley’s claims of sizable Catholic advantage. In separate earnings regressions we find that the marginal returns to Catholics from college education exceed those to similar Protestants. This offsets the disadvantage of lower precollege returns. Earnings differences between Protestant denominations appear to reflect the sorting of Protestants into denominations according to schooling and income.
The author is Associate Professor of Economics, University of Western Ontario, and is affiliated with the Economics Research Center/NORC, Chicago. Monica van Huystee provided excellent research assistance, and two referees supplied constructive comments. The usual caveat applies.
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