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Journal of Labor Economics Vol. 36 No. 4 2018

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

Rosario Maria Ballatore1; Margherita Fort2,3,4; Andrea Ichino4

1 Bank of Italy · 2 Ifo Institute for Economic Research · 3 International Zinc Association · 4 University of Bologna

open access

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1086/697524
Volume
36
Issue
4
Pages
885-921
Language
en
Sources
semanticscholar openalex crossref

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