Do schools discriminate against homosexual parents? Evidence from a randomized correspondence experiment

Luis Diaz-Serrano and Enric Meix-Llop

Economics of Education Review, 2016, vol. 53, issue C, 133-142

Abstract: The recognition of homosexual rights is a controversial issue in many countries. Spain was the third country in the world (after the Netherlands and Belgium) to introduce a law recognizing homosexual marriage and the adoption of children by homosexual couples. In this paper, we examine for the first time whether schools are more hesitant about giving feedback to homosexual parents during children's pre-registration period in Catalonia (Spain). To do so, we designed a correspondence experiment to be conducted in schools. We created three types of fictitious couples—one heterosexual, one gay, and one lesbian—and sent emails to schools in which the couples’ sexual orientation was explicit. Our results show that gay couples had a significantly lower (22 percentage points) call-back probability than heterosexual couples. No statistically significant differences in call-back probability were found between the lesbian and heterosexual couples.

Keywords: Discrimination; Correspondence field experiment; Schools; Homosexual rights; Homosexual parents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 I20 K36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:133-142

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.06.001

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