Statistical or taste-based Discrimination at the gates of admission to 5th Grade High School in Germany – Evidence from the field

With regard to the study design, we sent an application via email to all high schools with aliases as parents of prospective primary school graduates of the 4th grade - randomized with and without a migration background, female or male and with or without a recommendation for High School (i.e. "Gymnasium) (2x2x2 interventions).

2024-01-15

2024-01-31

The primary outcome variable is responsiveness of the addressed high schools. Responsiveness is measured as follows. If we observe a non-automated response to our treatment email, we mark it as “1”. If we do not observe a non-automated response, we mark it as “0”.
(i) We expect that the overall responsiveness towards inquirers without immigrant background is higher compared to high school's responsiveness towards inquirers with immigrant background.
(ii) We expect that high schools within districts that have a higher share of immigrants answer more frequently to inquirers with an immigrant background than schools in districts that have a low share of immigrants.
(iii) We expect that schools are more responsive to male compared to female inquirers.
(iv) We expect that schools are more responsive to inquirers with high GPA (“Gymnasialempfehlung”) compared to inquirers with low GPA (“keine Gymnasialempfehlung”).

Primary Outcomes (explanation)
(i) There is evidence that German elites rather respond to inquiries made by people without immigrant background compared to inquiries made by people with immigrant background.
(ii) We expect this outcome due to pre-tests in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
(iii) These expectations are based on the observation from pre-tests in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It can also be explained by gender studies.
(iv) This outcome can be driven by rational choice: High-GPA students are preferred by admission offices over low-GPA students.

Apart from responsiveness we are interested in the tonality and the text length of the written answers to the students. We expect that the tonality also varies across the treatment dimensions. This will be an additional variable we will use once we have a sufficient number of observations. In addition, we are interested in categorizing the answers between helpful answers, rejections and other categories that exemplify good, bad or even ugly answer types.
(i) We expect that migrant inquires receive non-helpful answers more often compared to non-migration inquires.
(ii) We expect that that migrant inquires receive neutral or even negative answers more often compared to non-migrant inquires.
(iii) We expect that non-migrant inquirers receive shorter answers compared to migrant inquires because respondents are spending more time to write non-helpful or negative answers compared to positive answers.

All effects are based on rational behavior or cognitive dissonances:
(i) The respondent shows discrimination not by neglect but by choosing a lower effort level.
(ii) The respondent shows discrimination not by neglect but by choosing a lower effort level quality.
(iii) We believe that humans who are intentionally discriminate are aware of this action and justify their behavior by writing longer answers.

Experimental Design
This experiment aims to find effects of taste-based discrimination within the German High School System in the responsiveness towards students with immigrant background and without immigrant background with either very good or intermediate grades.
Therefore, we designed an experiment with three binary dimensions on side of the inquirers who ask High School Admission offices about information on how to apply for High School.

We take all High Schools of the 16 states in the Federal Republic of Germany into account. The first of the three treatment dimensions of the inquirers is a potential immigrant background. The inquirer’s name signals, from a German point of view, an immigrant background or not. The second dimension is the gender of the inquirer. Again, the name signals female or male gender. The third dimension varies the quality of the educational background of the inquirer so if there is or is not a recommendation for the Gymasium. This corresponds to either a high GPA for a low GPA in primary school.
Each school is contacted via email by one of the eight profiles which consist of all convex combinations of the three dimensions. We will then observe whether a High School responds to the request and if, how much time was required.

Inquiries are sent via email by four fictional people. First names and surnames are chosen such that they imply that the corresponding inquirer has immigrant background (e. g. Yusuf Kaya) or not (e. g. Lukas Becker) with a high probability according to German census. In addition, the first names also relate to the gender of the inquirer. This is the signal we employ to convey a potential immigrant or female or male background of the inquirer. The educational skill of the student is transmitted by the text in the inquiry.
The text of the inquiry also signals that the inquirers are middle school students. Conclusively, inquirers, irrespective of treatments, are minors. This specific group is of special interest for social science.
During our experiment, we generate two samples of data. Firstly, we create an anonymous data set in which each candidate receives a randomly generated ID. We collect information such as the reaction on our email. Secondly, we create a set of control data in which the aforementioned individual information on schools is stored. The latter data set is password-protected and the first data set is anonymized, ensuring that legislators cannot be identified. Thus, issues regarding data protection are mitigated optimally.

Randomization is done in office by a computer.

State level

Yes

15 clusters with respect to randomization unit (state level). 8 clusters with respect to treatment clusters (three binary dimensions) within randomization unit.

Around 3000+, which is the number of High Schools in the 16 States of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Approximately 350+ for each of the 8 possible treatments:
(i) Immigrant background + Male + high GPA (i.e. Recommendation for High School / Gymnasialempfehlung)
(ii) Immigrant background + Female + high GPA (i.e. Recommendation for High School / Gymnasialempfehlung)

(iii) No immigrant background + Male + high GPA (i.e. Recommendation for High School / Gymnasialempfehlung)
(iv) No immigrant background + Female + high GPA (i.e. Recommendation for High School / Gymnasialempfehlung)
(v) Immigrant background + Male + low GPA (i.e. No Recommendation for High School / keine Gymnasialempfehlung)
(vi) Immigrant background + Female low GPA Immigrant background + Male + low GPA (i.e. No Recommendation for High School / keine Gymnasialempfehlung)
(vii) No immigrant background + Male low GPA Immigrant background + Male + low GPA (i.e. No Recommendation for High School / keine Gymnasialempfehlung)
(viii) No immigrant background + Female low GPA Immigrant background + Male + low GPA (i.e. No Recommendation for High School / keine Gymnasialempfehlung)