Ramadan, fasting and educational outcomes

Hessel Oosterbeek
Bas van der Klaauw

Economics of Education Review 34, 219-226 (2013).

Abstract Using a difference-in-differences framework, we estimate the impact of Ramadan on educational outcomes of Muslim students living in a non-Muslim country. For identification we exploit that the number of Ramadan weeks during the course that we study, varies from year to year, ranging from zero to four. Our main finding is that Ramadan observance has a negative impact on performance; one additional Ramadan week lowers the final grade of Muslim students by almost ten percent of a standard deviation.

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Last updated: May 13, 2013.