A Large-Scale Audit Experiment Among Street-Level Bureaucrats
Does religious bias shape access to public services? A large-scale audit experiment among street-level bureaucrats Steven Pfaff{ Charles Crabtreey Holger L. Kernx John B. Holbein∗ August 9, 2018 We thank David P. Baker, Quintin Beazer, William Berry, Katie E. Corcoran, Penny Edgell, Michael Gaddis, Matt Golder, Sona Golder, Paul Goldman, Walter Mebane, Ross Matsueda, Carly Wayne, Ariel White, and audiences at Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, West Virginia University, the NYU-CESS 10th Annual Experimental Political Science Conference, and the 2017 Harvard Experimental Political Science Graduate Student Conference for insightful comments. The study has been reviewed by Human Subjects Committees at Pennsylvania State University (#STUDY00002386) and the University of Michigan (#HUM00118066). {Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Washington. yPh.D. cand., Department of Political Science, University of Michigan. xAssistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Florida State University. ∗Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Brigham Young University. Despite growing descriptive evidence of discrimination against minority religious groups and atheists in the United States, little experimental work exists studying whether indi- viduals face differential barriers to receiving public services depending on their religious affiliation. Here we report results from a large-scale audit study of street-level bureaucrats in the American public school system. We emailed the principals of more than 45,000 public schools and asked for a meeting, randomly assigning the religious affiliation/non-affiliation of the family. To get at potential mechanisms, we also randomly assigned belief intensity. We find evidence of substantial discrimination against Muslims and atheists. These indi- viduals are substantially less likely to receive a response, with discrimination growing when they signal that their beliefs are more intense.
[Show full text]