Tower of Babel in the Classroom: Immigrants and Natives in Italian Schools

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ballatore, Rosario Maria; Fort, Margherita; Ichino, Andrea
• 署名单位: European Central Bank; Bank of Italy; University of Bologna; European University Institute
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/697524
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 885-921
• 关键词: educational outcomes; class size; achievement; performance

摘要

We exploit rules of class formation to identify the causal effect of increasing the number of immigrants in a classroom on natives' test scores, keeping class size and quality of the two types of students constant (pure ethnic composition [PEC] effect). We explain why this is a relevant policy parameter although it has been neglected so far. The PEC effect is sizable and negative (16% of a standard deviation) on language and math scores. For first-generation immigrants, it is more negative (30% of a standard deviation). Estimates that cannot control for endogenous adjustments implemented by principals are instead considerably smaller.