'For the Love of the Republic' Education, Secularism, and Empowerment

摘要: We exploit a change in compulsory schooling laws Turkey to estimate the causal effects of education on religiosity and women's socio-economic status. A new law, implemented 1998 bound individuals born after specific date 8 years while those earlier could drop out 5 years. This allows implementation Regression Discontinuity (RD) Design estimation meaningful estimates schooling. Using 2008 Turkish Demographic Health Survey, we show that reform resulted one-year increase among women average, although it did not men. Over period ten years, this having lower religiosity, greater decision rights over marriage fertility, higher household wealth. find muted average RD effect labor force participation shrouds heterogenous depending socioeconomic background; from more socially conservative backgrounds tend obser ve no whereas less experience large increase. Education thus empowers across wide spectrum Muslim society, yet faces limits allowing communities realizing their full potential through market. JEL Classification: J16, I25, Z12