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American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 5 2015

Falling Through the Cracks? Grade Retention and School Dropout among Children of Likely Unauthorized Immigrants

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes1; Mary Lopez2

1 Department of Economics, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182 (e-mail: ) · 2 Department of Economics, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90041 (e-mail: )

Abstract

We evaluate how intensified interior immigration enforcement impacts the likelihood that children of unauthorized immigrants will repeat a grade or drop out of school. Using a weighted index of the intensity of interior immigration enforcement at the MSA level, we find that increased enforcement has the largest impact on younger children ages 6 to 13. The estimates, which account for the non-random residential location of children and their families, reveal that increased enforcement raises young children's probability of repeating a grade by 6 percent and their likelihood of dropping out of school by 25.2 percent.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20151113
Volume
105
Issue
5
Pages
598-603
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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