TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Hanemaaijer, Kyra
AU  - Marie, Olivier
AU  - Musumeci, Marco
        TI  - The Fast and the Studious? Ramadan Observance and Student Performance
        PY  - 2023/Jun/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16249
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16249
        AB  - 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.

        KW  - religion
KW  - productivity
KW  - Ramadan
KW  - education
KW  - The Netherlands
        ER  -