Behavioral consequences of religious schooling
通过孟加拉国孤儿院的田野实验，发现接受宗教教育的儿童比世俗教育儿童更利他和诚实，但风险偏好、合作、信任等行为无显著差异，且影响集中在青春期前后的儿童。
I investigate how long-term exposure to religious schooling affects economic behavior of children. To identify the effect of religious schooling, I study residential schools for orphans in Bangladesh that differ in terms of religious curriculum and social environment, limit transmission of beliefs and preferences from parents to children following being orphaned, make social learning by children limited after school enrolment, and mitigate issues concerning endogenous school choice by parents. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment in this school setting, I measure children’s behavior and find that (i) children receiving religious education are more altruistic and honest relative to children receiving secular education; (ii) religious schooling does not affect risk aversion, cooperation, trust, and trustworthiness of children; and, (iii) behavioral differences are driven by children who are around puberty and have completed primary education. These findings provide useful insights into how long-term exposure to religious schooling can affect behavior—possibly by shifting preferences—during childhood and adolescence.