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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

11. Protestants and Catholics and Educational Investment in Guatemala

Authors : Rachel M. McCleary, Robert J. Barro

Published in: Advances in the Economics of Religion

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Recent empirical research on the relation of religion to human capital has focused on the distinction between Mainline Protestantism and Catholicism. Our research emphasizes differential investment in education across types of Protestantism. We apply this framework to Guatemala, a country that was historically dominated by Catholicism but has moved in recent decades toward Protestantism. Our research was motivated by theological differences between Mainline Protestant denominations and premillennialist movements (Evangelical, Pentecostal) that arose at the end of the nineteenth century. These denominations placed less emphasis than Mainline Protestants on investment in education. Consistent with this perspective, literacy is enhanced more by Mainline Protestant schools than by other Protestant schools. Catholic schools have the weakest relation with literacy, likely because the ouster of Catholic orders and schools in the liberal reforms of the 1870s had a lasting influence.

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Footnotes
1
We are grateful to Sriya Iyer, Jared Rubin, and Jean-Paul Carvalho for their comments on the draft of our chapter.
 
2
For a review of the literature on the relationship between Protestantism and human capital, see Becker et al. (2016).
 
3
For China, see Cohen (1963), Bai and Kung (2012), and Woodberry (2012). For Korea, see Shearer (1965), Lee (1989), Woodberry (2007), and McCleary (2013). For Africa, see Nunn (2009, 2010, 2014).
 
4
There were many exceptions prior to the Council of Trent; see Crehan (1963, 199–237).
 
5
Hutchison (1989) referred to seven Mainline or liberal Protestant groups as the Seven Sisters of American Protestantism. The seven are United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church, Episcopal Church USA, United Church of Christ, American Baptist Churches USA, and Disciples of Christ. In his earlier work, Hutchison (1976) identified as Mainline Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal/Anglican, Baptist, and Disciples of Christ. The Pew Research Center for Religion and Public Life identifies as Mainline Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian/Anglican, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Restorationist, Anabaptist, Friends (Quakers), Reformed, and other small churches. For a discussion of the history of Mainline denominations in the United States, see Thuesen (2002, 27–53).
 
6
The term “charismatic” refers to those who share with Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals a belief in Holy Spirit manifestations. Some charismatics formed independent churches, while others remained as members of Mainline Protestant denominations (Synan 1975, 1–4; Johnson 2014, 274–276).
 
8
According to Marsden (1987, 1991), an Evangelical is defined as believing in (1) the supreme authority of inspired Scripture for faith and practice, (2) the divinity of Jesus Christ as incarnate God, (3) Jesus Christ as savior and the only means of saving sinful humanity, (4) the importance of personal conversion as the central criterion for salvation, and (5) a commitment to sharing the transforming “good news” of new life in Jesus Christ, which comes by God’s Grace alone through faith in the crucified and risen savior. In this chapter, the term “Evangelical” encompasses holiness churches and denominations that formed during the first decades of the twentieth century, including Keswickian faith missions such as the Central American Mission (CAM), known today as Camino Global, Wycliffe Bible Translators, and its sister organization the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and Christian and Missionary Alliance.
 
9
The accepted history of Pentecostalism is that it became a recognized movement after the 1906 Azusa Street revival in California (Wacker 1984, 354).
 
10
For a discussion of this emphasis on literacy, see McLuhan (1964), Ong (1982), Schmidt (2000), and Eisenstein (1997).
 
11
Paul Burgess, a Presbyterian missionary, in his biography of Barrios, provides a detailed description of how Barrios used his position as General of the Guatemalan Army under President Granados to round up the Jesuits and force them onto a boat to Panama (Burgess 1946, 89–90). For a more detailed discussion of these events, see Miller (1969). Priests who wished to remain in the country were required to give up their vows and become secular priests, thereby submitting to the authority of the Archbishop of Guatemala.
 
12
The government of Guatemala measures literacy in two ways. First, the national censuses ask for children aged 7 to 15 years, “Can you read?” or “Do you know how to read?” The same question is sometimes targeted toward Mayan languages. Second, literacy information is gathered through survey data using national sampling techniques (Fernando Rubio, Director and Chief of Party, United States Agency for International Development, Guatemala, e-mail correspondence with Rachel McCleary, August 5, 2013). In recent years, primary and secondary education is mandatory and offered free as public schooling for children between the ages of 7 and 14.
 
13
These are the years of national population censuses, except for 2011. The last national census was in 2002.
 
14
Data prior to 1940 for El Progreso are unavailable because this area was included with other departments until 1934.
 
15
All departments are included, except for Amatitlán, which was a separate department until 1935, after which it became part of the Department of Guatemala. Amatitlán is excluded throughout because of missing data. El Progreso is included as a distinct department since 1934.
 
16
Because of missing data, the numbers of churches and religious schools per capita in 2011 were assumed to be the same as those observed in 2010.
 
17
In this system, the coefficients of all variables other than the indigenous share were constrained to be the same across the two sub-periods.
 
18
The term “bilingual education” as used in Guatemala refers to learning in the first language to achieve competency in a second language (transitional), or developing communication skills in the first language while achieving competency in a second (parallelism). See Consejo Nacional de la Educación Maya (2003) and Richards and Richards (1996, 208–221).
 
19
In this case, the coefficients of all variables other than population density and its square were constrained to be the same for the two sub-periods.
 
20
Recall that the numbers of Catholic schools are entered as zero in each department prior to 1940. However, the inclusion of these years—for 1880, 1893, and 1921—does not have much influence on the results. If the sample begins only in 1940, the estimated coefficient of Catholic schools per capita is 0.28, s.e. = 0.26.
 
21
The coefficients of other variables were constrained to be the same over the two sub-periods.
 
22
If we separate Evangelical churches from Pentecostal/neo-Pentecostal churches, we get respective coefficients of −0.001 (s.e. = 0.019) and 0.022 (0.014). These two estimated coefficients do not differ significantly (p-value = 0.34).
 
23
Hickman (2016) attempts to deal with endogeneity by using as instruments for Protestant presence in the 1990s the historical locations of Protestant missionaries and of Catholic parishes. However, the former variable turns out to lack explanatory power for Protestant presence in the 1990s. More Catholic parishes do predict lower Protestant presence.
 
24
The regression includes a constant term, and the sum of the estimated department fixed effects is constrained to be zero.
 
25
The sample now uses nine dates for the literacy rate, from 1893 to 2002. Results are similar with five-year lags and leads.
 
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Metadata
Title
Protestants and Catholics and Educational Investment in Guatemala
Authors
Rachel M. McCleary
Robert J. Barro
Copyright Year
2019
Book
Advances in the Economics of Religion

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98847-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-98848-1

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98848-1_11