Charity Begins at Home: Religion-Based Discrimination in Education

This report analyzes the NBER Working Paper 24922, which investigates religion-based discrimination in education within Israel's Jewish state education system. The study examines grading decisions on national matriculation exams, comparing the grades given by religious versus secular examiners to religious versus secular students. The findings reveal evidence of in-group bias, particularly among male examiners, and explore how exposure to different religious beliefs may attenuate this bias. The research utilizes a method to infer religious status and exploits the grade distribution to understand the source of the bias. The paper discusses the long-run implications of these biases on students' university admission, occupation, and earnings. The analysis covers over 3.5 million grades across various subjects and questionnaires, using data from 2010-2015. The study also addresses the impact of bias on students' chances of passing exams and achieving perfect scores.