Research

I study how parental religiosity impacts individuals' educational attainment levels, exploiting exogenous variation in parental religiosity induced by the peculiarities of the Islamic calendar. Specifically, I combine the Ramadan season for each year with the latitude of each locality in Turkey to generate variation in the length of daylight and, thus, in Ramadan fasting hours in the enrollment year across Turkish provinces. I focus mainly on primary education in Turkey and individuals born after the republic until 1984, of whom three out of four could complete at least compulsory primary education. Since primary school-aged children are not required to engage in fasting practices, and secularism ensures that teachers and other civil servants remain religion-neutral, I can detect the effects of parental religiosity. Regression results show that increases in parental religiosity significantly decrease the share of individuals who have completed primary education; however, the effect is more pronounced among females. In addition, fasting duration does not affect the male and female birth cohorts of which enrollment year Ramadan happens after the enrollment period. To assess the mechanism behind it, I first utilize novel data on the enrollment of primary school students by grade. Then, I demonstrate that the number of first-grade students decreases equally for girls and boys and that students' school performances are unaffected, conditional on their enrollment. Moreover, fasting duration does not affect the male and female birth cohorts of which enrollment year Ramadan happens after the enrollment period. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the larger effects on enrollment for both boys and girls occur in provinces with historically lower literacy rates and income levels, higher preexisting levels of religiosity, and where women are historically less empowered. Finally, I show that the persistent effects on girls are predominantly observed in areas where literacy rates are historically lower and women are less represented in literate groups and in school environments compared to men as teachers. Additionally, there are no observable pre-existing characteristics that differentiate the effects on males' educational attainment levels, suggesting that military service and the breadwinner role of males help alleviate the adverse effects for boys.

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 100 Years of Economic Development Conference at Cornell, 2022-Annual Congress of European Economic Association; 2022-ASREC Graduate Student Workshop; 1st Junior Economists Meeting at the University of Milan; 1st Joint Workshop of Applied Micro- and Macroeconomics at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano; and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

This paper investigates the origins of the deep-rooted gender inequalities in Muslim countries by examining the effect of religiosity on female and male students' STEM achievements. Using Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) test scores of eighth-graders in Muslim countries and the idiosyncratic variation in the distance of their examination dates to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, I find that STEM performances of female students significantly worsen in the three months after Ramadan; on the contrary, the occurrence of Ramadan does not affect male students' test scores. The analysis of survey data indicates that these effects are due to increased religiosity and subsequent reinforcement of traditional gender norms among parents. I further provide evidence of increased gender stereotypes in the school context, proxied by higher salience of low self-confidence among girls and negative peer pressure on girls in the aftermath of Ramadan.

Presented at: 33rd European Association of Labor Economists; 3rd ASREC Graduate Student Workshops; 34th Annual Conference of European Society for Population Economics; 3rd Ph.D. Workshop in Economics at Collegio Carlo Alberto; #ASREC24hr; University of Utah; Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore