Religion as a Determinant of Educational Attainment: An Economic Perspective Evelyn L. Lehrer Economics Department, University of Illinois at Chicago This paper uses data from the 1987–88 National Survey of Families and Households to study how the religion in which individuals are brought up influences the number of years of schooling that they complete. In multivariate analyses where a large number of other family background factors are held constant, significant differences by religion are uncovered: educational attainment is highest among Jews and lowest among fundamental- ist Protestants, with Catholics and mainline Protestants at the center of the distribution. Various channels through which religion may influence the level of schooling are considered, within the framework of a human capital model that distinguishes between supply and demand factors. The empirical findings suggest that while demand influences are most important in explaining the high education of Jews, the relatively low schooling level of fundamentalist Protestants reflects supply and demand forces of similar strength. Analyses of schooling transitions shed light on the stages of the process at which the divergences occur.  1999 Academic Press Several studies have documented that religion plays an important role in the economic and demographic behavior of American families, ranging from mar- riage and divorce to fertility and female employment (see reviews of this literature in Lehrer (1996a) and Iannacconne (1998)). A large body of research has also explored the effects of religion on education, earnings, and other measures of socioeconomic attainment. Early studies consistently found that Jews have substantially higher levels of schooling and earnings than other groups (Chiswick, 1983, 1988, 1993; Tomes, 1983, 1985). Comparisons between Protestants and Catholics, however, yielded conflicting rankings (e.g., Featherman, 1971; Gree- ley, 1976, 1981; Roof, 1979, 1981; Tomes, 1985; Steen and Dubbink, 1994). Partly because of this lack of clear patterns, the effects of religion on educational attainment have received little attention in recent years. Thus, it is not surprising that in an extensive survey of the determinants of children’s attainments, religion I am indebted to Barry Chiswick, Carmel Chiswick, and two anonymous referees for many helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. Address reprint requests to Evelyn L. Lehrer, Economics Department (m/c 144), University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, IL 60607-7121. E-mail: elehrer@uic.edu. Social Science Research 28, 358–379 (1999) Article ID ssre.1998.0642, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on 358 0049-089X/99 $30.00 Copyright  1999 by Academic Press All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.