The Effect of Immigrant Peers in Vocational Schools

39 Pages Posted: 13 Feb 2018

See all articles by Tommaso Frattini

Tommaso Frattini

University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA); University of Milan - Department of Economics, Business and Statistics

Elena Meschi

Ca Foscari University of Venice

Multiple version iconThere are 4 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 1, 2017

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on how the presence of immigrant peers in the classroom affects native student achievement. The analysis is based on longitudinal administrative data on two cohorts of vocational training students in Italy’s largest region. Vocational training institutions provide the ideal setting for studying these effects because they attract not only disproportionately high shares of immigrants but also the lowest ability native students. We adopt a value added model, and exploit within-school variation both within and across cohorts for identification. Our results show small negative average effects on maths test scores that are larger for low ability native students, strongly non-linear and only observable in classes with a high (top 20%) immigrant concentration. These outcomes are driven by classes with a high average linguistic distance between immigrants and natives, with no apparent role played by ethnic diversity.

Keywords: Immigration, education, peer effects, vocational training, language.

JEL Classification: I20, J15

Suggested Citation

Frattini, Tommaso and Meschi, Elena, The Effect of Immigrant Peers in Vocational Schools (September 1, 2017). Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 430, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3085982 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3085982

Tommaso Frattini (Contact Author)

University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA) ( email )

Via P. Amedeo 34
Milano, Mi 20122
Italy

University of Milan - Department of Economics, Business and Statistics ( email )

Via Festa del Perdono, 7
Milan, 20122
Italy

Elena Meschi

Ca Foscari University of Venice

Dorsoduro 3246
Venice, Veneto 30123
Italy

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