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Ethnic enclaves in the classroom

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  • Friesen, Jane
  • Krauth, Brian

Abstract

We use data on elementary-school students to investigate how the home language and other characteristics of a student's same-grade schoolmates influence that student's academic achievement. We exploit the availability of multiple cohorts of data within each school to control for endogenous selection by incorporating school fixed effects in the model. We also exploit the longitudinal structure of the data to estimate value-added models of the educational production function. We find that attending an "enclave" school provides a slight net benefit to Chinese home-language students and a large net cost to Punjabi home-language students. The results are consistent with a simple peer effects mechanism in which the academic achievement or behavior of peers is much more important than their home language.

Suggested Citation

  • Friesen, Jane & Krauth, Brian, 2011. "Ethnic enclaves in the classroom," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 656-663, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:18:y:2011:i:5:p:656-663
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    3. Fletcher, Jason M. & Ross, Stephen L. & Zhang, Yuxiu, 2020. "The consequences of friendships: Evidence on the effect of social relationships in school on academic achievement," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    4. Frattini, Tommaso & Meschi, Elena, 2019. "The effect of immigrant peers in vocational schools," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-22.
    5. Peter Jensen, 2021. "Immigrants in the classroom and effects on native children," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 194-194, April.
    6. Thomas Ahn & Christopher Jepsen, 2015. "The effect of sharing a mother tongue with peers: evidence from North Carolina middle schools," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Thiemann, Petra, 2017. "The Persistent Effects of Short-Term Peer Groups in Higher Education," IZA Discussion Papers 11024, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Seah, Kelvin, 2016. "The Impact of Immigrant Peers on Native Students' Academic Achievement in Countries Where Parents of Immigrants Are Relatively Skilled," IZA Discussion Papers 10065, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Stephen L. Ross & Zhentao Shi, 2022. "Measuring Social Interaction Effects When Instruments Are Weak," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 995-1006, June.
    10. Bacic, Ryan & Zheng, Angela, 2023. "Race and the Income-Achievement Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 16419, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ammermueller, Andreas, 2012. "Violence in European schools: A widespread phenomenon that matters for educational production," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 908-922.
    12. De Paola, Maria & Brunello, Giorgio, 2016. "Education as a Tool for the Economic Integration of Migrants," IZA Discussion Papers 9836, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Bifulco, Robert & Fletcher, Jason M. & Oh, Sun Jung & Ross, Stephen L., 2014. "Do high school peers have persistent effects on college attainment and other life outcomes?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 83-90.
    14. Ivlevs, Artjoms & King, Roswitha M., 2014. "2004 Minority Education Reform and pupil performance in Latvia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 151-166.
    15. Sprietsma, Maresa & Pfeil, Lisa, 2015. "Peer effects in language training for migrants," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-033, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Schiltz, Fritz & Mazrekaj, Deni & Horn, Daniel & De Witte, Kristof, 2019. "Does it matter when your smartest peers leave your class? Evidence from Hungary," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 79-91.
    17. Oleg V. Poldin & Tania P. Simoes & Marcelo Knobel & Maria M. Yudkevich, 2015. "Estimation of Peer Effects with Predicted Social Ties: Evidence from Two Universities in Brazil and Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 30/EDU/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    18. Jason M. Fletcher & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "Estimating the effects of friends on health behaviors of adolescents," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1450-1483, October.
    19. Ryan Bacic & Angela Zheng, 2024. "Race and the Income‐Achievement Gap," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 5-23, January.
    20. Kelvin K. C. Seah, 2021. "Impact of Immigrant Peers on Native Students’ Achievement: Evidence from Australia, Canada and the United States," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(1), pages 94-116, March.

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