The Fast and the Studious? Ramadan Observance and Student Performance

Kyra Hanemaaijer, Olivier Marie and Marco Musumeci ()
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Marco Musumeci: Erasmus University Rotterdam

No 16249, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: What are the consequences of religious obligations conflicting with civic duties? We investigate this question by evaluating changes in the performance of practicing Muslim students when end-of-secondary-school exams and Ramadan overlapped in the Netherlands. Using administrative data on exam takers and a machine learning model to individually predict fasting probability, we estimate that the grades and pass rate of compliers dropped significantly. This negative impact was especially strong for low achievers and those from religiously segregated schools. Investigating mechanisms, we find evidence that not being able to sleep in the morning before an afternoon exam was particularly detrimental to performance.

Keywords: religion; productivity; Ramadan; education; The Netherlands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 I24 J15 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 67 pages
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big and nep-ure
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Working Paper: The Fast and the Studious? Ramadan Observance and Student Performance (2023)
Working Paper: The Fast and The Studious? Ramadan Observance and Student Performance (2023)
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