TY - JOUR

T1 - The Unequal Distribution of Opportunity

T2 - A National Audit Study of Bureaucratic Discrimination in Primary School Access

AU - Olsen, Asmus Leth

AU - Kyhse-Andersen, Jonas Hogh

AU - Moynihan, Donald

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Administrators can use their discretion to discriminate in the provision of public services via two mechanisms. They make decisions to allocate public services, allowing them to discriminate via allocative exclusion. They can also discriminate by targeting administrative burdens toward outgroups to make bureaucratic processes more onerous. While prior audit studies only examine the use of administrative burdens, we offer evidence of both mechanisms. We sent a request to all Danish primary schools (N = 1,698) from an ingroup (a typical Danish name) and outgroup (a Muslim name) father asking if it was possible to move his child to the school. While both groups received similar response rates, we find large differences in discrimination via allocative exclusion: Danes received a clear acceptance 25% of the time, compared to 15% for Muslims. Muslims also faced greater administrative burdens in the form of additional questions.

AB - Administrators can use their discretion to discriminate in the provision of public services via two mechanisms. They make decisions to allocate public services, allowing them to discriminate via allocative exclusion. They can also discriminate by targeting administrative burdens toward outgroups to make bureaucratic processes more onerous. While prior audit studies only examine the use of administrative burdens, we offer evidence of both mechanisms. We sent a request to all Danish primary schools (N = 1,698) from an ingroup (a typical Danish name) and outgroup (a Muslim name) father asking if it was possible to move his child to the school. While both groups received similar response rates, we find large differences in discrimination via allocative exclusion: Danes received a clear acceptance 25% of the time, compared to 15% for Muslims. Muslims also faced greater administrative burdens in the form of additional questions.

KW - FIELD EXPERIMENT

KW - ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

KW - CORRESPONDENCE TESTS

KW - METAANALYSIS

KW - DIVERSITY

KW - ATTITUDES

KW - LAKISHA

KW - GENDER

U2 - 10.1111/ajps.12584

DO - 10.1111/ajps.12584

M3 - Journal article

VL - 66

SP - 587

EP - 603

JO - American Journal of Political Science

JF - American Journal of Political Science

SN - 0092-5853

IS - 3

ER -