Parental Religiosity and Missing School-Girls in Turkey

Does parents' religiosity affect their female offspring's education and other life-long outcomes? I address this question by focusing on Turkey and exploiting Ramadan as a quasi-natural experiment for increased active religiosity. I find that the occurrence of Ramadan at the enrollment time in primary schools reduces girls' chance to access primary education. This result arises from the salience of traditional gender norms that religiosity engenders. I further show that parental religiosity at the primary school enrollment has persistent effects on females' labor market outcomes. They become less likely to participate in the labor market, less likely to be income-earners, and less likely to work in professional jobs. Instead, increased religiosity at the critical age of schooling increases fertility and the probability of women being out of the labor force due to household responsibilities. These results are robust to di erent specifications and an alternative empirical strategy that uses average daylight hours during Ramadan in the year of primary school enrollment as a shock to religiosity.