Nber Working Paper Series Empirics on the Origins of Preferences: the Case of College Major and Religiosity

Early life experiences are likely to be important for the formation of preferences. Religiosity is a key dimension of preferences, affecting many economic outcomes. This paper examines the effect of college major on religiosity, and the converse effect of religiosity on college major, using panel data from the Monitoring the Future survey as a way of gauging the extent to which various streams of thought, as taught in college, affect religiosity. Two key questions, based on the differences in college experience across majors, are whether either (a) the Scientific worldview or (b) Postmodernism has negative effects on religiosity as these streams of thought are actually transmitted at the college level. The results show a decline in religiosity of students majoring in the social sciences and humanities, but a rise in religiosity for those in education and business. After initial choices, those respondents with high levels of religiosity are more likely to enter college. Of those who are in college, people with high levels of religiosity tend to go into the humanities and education over other majors. Miles S. Kimball Department of Economics University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 and NBER [email protected] Colter M. Mitchell Family Demography Survey Research Center University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1248 [email protected] Arland D. Thornton Survey Research Center 2226 ISR, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1248 [email protected] Linda C. Young-Demarco Survey Research Center ISR 2270, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1248 [email protected]