Does Immigration Affect the Long-Term Educational Outcomes of Natives? Quasi-Experimental Evidence

This article uses the mass migration wave to Israel in the 1990s to examine the impact of immigrant concentration during elementary school on the long-term academic outcomes of native students in high school. The results suggest that the overall presence of immigrants in a grade had an adverse effect on the chances of passing the high school matriculation exam, which is necessary to attend college. This result is robust to a variety of alternative specifications. We also perform a 'placebo' analysis which shows that the high school outcomes of natives are affected only by the immigrant concentration in their own 5th grade class. Copyright © The Author(s). Journal compilation © Royal Economic Society 2009.