Is education the panacea for economic deprivation of Muslims? Evidence from wage earners in India, 1987-2005

Few researchers have examined the nature and determinants of earnings differentials among religious groups, and none has been undertaken in the context of conflict-prone multi-religious societies like the one in India. We address this lacuna in the literature by examining the differences in the average log earnings of Hindu and Muslim wage earners in India, during the 1987–2005 period. Our results indicate that education differences between Hindu and Muslim wage earners, especially differences in the proportion of wage earners with tertiary education, are largely responsible for the differences in the average log earnings of the two religious groups across the years. By contrast, differences in the returns to education do not explain the aforementioned difference in average log earnings. In conclusion, we discuss some policy implications.

Representing religion in the European Union:does God matter?

Religious actors are becoming part of the EU bureaucratic system, and their mobilisation in Brussels and Strasbourg in the last decade has increased dramatically. This book explores the mechanism and impact of religious representation by examining relations between religious practitioners and politicians in the European Union from the Second World War until today. This book seeks to answer the following questions: How do (trans)national religious groups enter into contact with European institutions? What are the rationale and the mechanisms of religious representation in the European Union? How are religious values transposed into political strategies? What impact has relations between religious practitioners, EU officials and politicians on the construction of the European Union? Examining religious representation at the state, transnational and institutional levels, this volume demonstrates that ‘faith’ is becoming an increasingly important element of the decision-making process. It includes chapters written by both academics and religious practitioners in dialogue with European institutions and will be of great interest to students and scholars of European politics, history, sociology of religion, law and international relations.