IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v189y2021i1d10.1007_s11127-020-00860-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community influence as an explanatory factor why Roma children get little schooling

Author

Listed:
  • Oded Stark

    (University of Bonn
    University of Warsaw)

  • Ruxanda Berlinschi

    (KU Leuven)

Abstract

Parents who experience poverty and who want to provide their children with an escape route can be expected to encourage and support their progeny’s education. The evidence that Roma parents behave differently is unsettling. In this paper we test empirically an explanation for that behavior. The explanation is based on a theory (Stark et al. 2018) that can be “borrowed” to rationalize the enforcement of norms of little formal education in underprivileged communities. An analysis of survey data collected in Roma communities in four Central and Eastern European countries lends support to the explanation. The analysis reveals a strong negative correlation between the influence of the Roma community on an individual member’s life and the importance accorded by the individual to formal schooling for children. The correlation is robust to controlling for standard determinants of attitudes towards schooling, such as poverty, unemployment, labor market discrimination, and parents’ educational attainment. The analysis suggests that policy interventions aiming to increase the formal education of Roma children need to reckon with the influence of Roma community norms on individual choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Oded Stark & Ruxanda Berlinschi, 2021. "Community influence as an explanatory factor why Roma children get little schooling," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 93-114, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:189:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-020-00860-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-020-00860-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11127-020-00860-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11127-020-00860-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roland G. Fryer Jr., 2007. "A Model of Social Interactions and Endogenous Poverty Traps," Rationality and Society, , vol. 19(3), pages 335-366, August.
    2. Fryer, Roland, 2007. "A Model of Social Interactions and Endogenous Poverty Traps," Scholarly Articles 2958480, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    3. Peter Leeson, 2013. "Gypsy law," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 273-292, June.
    4. Stark, Oded & Jakubek, Marcin & Szczygielski, Krzysztof, 2018. "Community cohesion and assimilation equilibria," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 79-88.
    5. Niall O'Higgins & Andrey Ivanov, 2006. "Education and Employment Opportunities for the Roma," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 48(1), pages 6-19, March.
    6. Leonardo Bursztyn & Robert Jensen, 2015. "How Does Peer Pressure Affect Educational Investments?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1329-1367.
    7. George A. Akerlof, 1997. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1005-1028, September.
    8. Dena Ringold & Mitchell A. Orenstein & Erika Wilkens, 2005. "Roma in an Expanding Europe : Breaking the Poverty Cycle," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14869.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oded Stark & Wiktor Budzinski, 2021. "A social‐psychological reconstruction of Amartya Sen’s measures of inequality and social welfare," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 552-566, November.
    2. Ciaian, Pavel & Kancs, D’artis, 2018. "Social Mobility Barriers for Roma: Discrimination and Informal Institutions," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 670-685, October.
    3. Pavel Ciaian & d'Artis Kancs, 2016. "Causes of the Social and Economic Marginalisation: The Role of Social Mobility Barriers for Roma," EERI Research Paper Series EERI RP 2016/03, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    4. Sourav Bhattacharya & Joyee Deb & Tapas Kundu, 2015. "Mobility and Conflict," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 281-319, February.
    5. Francesco Flaviano Russo, 2024. "Cultural assimilation and segregation in heterogeneous societies," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-36, September.
    6. Pavel Ciaian & Andrej Cupák & Ján Pokrivčák & Marian Rizov, 2018. "Food consumption and diet quality choices of Roma in Romania: a counterfactual analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(2), pages 437-456, April.
    7. Roland G. Fryer, Jr, 2010. "The Importance of Segregation, Discrimination, Peer Dynamics, and Identity in Explaining Trends in the Racial Achievement Gap," NBER Working Papers 16257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Eguia, Jon X., 2017. "Discrimination and assimilation at school," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 48-58.
    9. Zenou, Yves & Itoh, Ryo & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2021. "Intergenerational Assimilation of Minorities: The Role of the Majority Group," CEPR Discussion Papers 16830, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Jakub Bielawski & Marcin Jakubek, 2021. "The Interplay between Migrants and Natives as a Determinant of Migrants’ Assimilation: A Coevolutionary Approach," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 13(3), pages 213-251, September.
    11. Wagner, Alexander F., 2011. "Relational contracts when the agent's productivity inside the relationship is correlated with outside opportunities," CEPR Discussion Papers 8378, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Sourav Bhattacharya & Joyee Deb & Tapas Kundu, 2011. "Mobility and Conflict," Working Paper 455, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Mar 2013.
    13. Christopher RAUH, 2018. "Decomposing Gaps between Roma and Non-Roma in Romania," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(2), pages 209-229, June.
    14. Lucia Mýtna Kureková, 2015. "Policy Puzzles with Roma Employment in Slovakia," Discussion Papers 34, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    15. Itoh, Ryo & Sato, Yasuhiro & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Intergenerational assimilation of minorities: The role of the majority group," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    16. Carvalho, Jean-Paul & Koyama, Mark, 2013. "Resisting Education," MPRA Paper 48048, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Teodor Sedlarski, 2022. "Individualism, collectivism, social capital, and economic development," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 171-204.
    18. Olcina, Gonzalo & Panebianco, Fabrizio & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Conformism, social pressure, and the dynamics of integration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 279-304.
    19. Fryer Jr., Roland G. & Torelli, Paul, 2010. "An empirical analysis of 'acting white'," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(5-6), pages 380-396, June.
    20. Jaya Jumrani & P. S. Birthal, 2017. "Does consumption of tobacco and alcohol affect household food security? Evidence from rural India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 255-279, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Community influence; Social norms; Social distance; Exposure to relative deprivation; Roma communities; Formal education of children;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:189:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-020-00860-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.