Determinants of gender discrimination by teachers: Evidence from an online experiment
Abstract
This paper examines whether teachers' gender biases stem from discrimination, and focuses on two of its potential drivers: gender preferences and beliefs. In an online experiment, 1,840 teachers evaluated fictitious transcripts with randomized gender information. Preferences were measured via dictator games, and beliefs through an Implicit Association Test. While teachers showed no gender preferences, they did hold gender beliefs. Analyzing 19,000 transcript evaluations, we find no evidence of gender-based discrimination. Our findings suggest that simply disclosing a student's gender does not trigger discrimination, implying that such behaviours are more likely to emerge during direct student-teacher interactions.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Gender Studies in Language
Gender Diversity and Inequality
Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection
Publication details
- Journal / source
- European Economic Review
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Volume
- 190
- Pages
- 105470–105470
- Publication date
- 7 September 2026
- Language
- EN