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Melting pot kindergarten: The effect of linguistic diversity in early education

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  • Jürges, Hendrik
  • Makles, Anna M.
  • Naghavi, Arash
  • Schneider, Kerstin

Abstract

Estimating the effect of linguistic diversity in kindergartens and schools on child development is challenging due to the endogeneity of the language spoken at home and self-selection. We employ an instrumental variables approach to address the former and accounted for self-selection by exploiting the variation in linguistic diversity across cohorts within kindergartens. The estimated causal effects of linguistic diversity are heterogeneous: There is a small negative but statistically significant effect on the development of German children, which is mainly driven by a detrimental effect on the language skills of German speakers, but there is no effect on non-German speakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jürges, Hendrik & Makles, Anna M. & Naghavi, Arash & Schneider, Kerstin, 2022. "Melting pot kindergarten: The effect of linguistic diversity in early education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:75:y:2022:i:c:s0927537122000124
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102119
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer effects; Linguistic diversity; Child development; Early education; Instrumental variable;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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