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Crime Exposure and Educational Outcomes in Mexico. (Violencia y desempeño académico en México)

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  • Pedro Paulo Orraca-Romano

    (Departamento de Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. México.)

Abstract

Driven by drug-related crimes, homicide levels in Mexico have dramatically increased since 2007. This study examines the effect of students’ exposure to crime on educational outcomes in Mexico. Using school-level data, a panel of the country’s elementary and secondary schools is constructed to analyze the effect of local homicides on standardized test scores and grade failure rates. The results show that a one-unit increase in the homicide rate per 10,000 inhabitants is associated with a reduction in school-level test scores between 0.0035 and 0.0142 standard deviations, this is likely being driven by effects of individual test scores and by compositional changes in the student body. Additionally, a rise in the homicide rate is also associated with an increase in the grade failure rate. It is proposed that the negative effects of crime exposure are partly due to a reduction of the number of contact hours, and students not compensating for this, by studying more outside of school. Exposure to homicides has potentially long-term consequences since it may affect educational achievement levels and future income flow.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Paulo Orraca-Romano, 2018. "Crime Exposure and Educational Outcomes in Mexico. (Violencia y desempeño académico en México)," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 177-212, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ere:journl:v:xxxvii:y:2018:i:2:p:177-212
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    Cited by:

    1. Padilla-Romo, María & Peluffo, Cecilia, 2023. "Persistence of the Spillover Effects of Violence and Educational Trajectories," IZA Discussion Papers 16374, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crime; Academic Performance; Homicides; Mexico;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • H49 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Other

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