The Roma or "Gypsies" are Europe's largest and poorest ethnic minority. Nearly 80 per cent of them live in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The Roma - Non-Roma educational gap, always substantial but slowly closing in the communist years, widened again after the...

This study estimates the expected long-term budgetary benefits to investing into Roma education in Hungary. By budgetary benefits we mean the direct financial benefits to the national budget. The main idea is that investing extra public money into Roma education would pay off even in fiscal...

We analyze the magnitude and the causes of the low formal employment rate of the Roma in Hungary between 1993 and 2007. The employment rate of the Roma dropped dramatically around 1990. The ethnic employment gap has been 40 percentage points for both men and women and has stayed remarkably...

This paper documents and decomposes the test score gap between Roma and non-Roma 8th graders in Hungary in 2006. Our data connect national standardized test scores to an individual panel survey with detailed data on ethnicity and family background. The test score gap is approximately one...

Using all of the available data on the ethnic composition of Hungarian primary schools, this paper documents the degree of between-school segregation of Roma versus non-Roma students between 1980 and 2011. We calculate the measures of segregation within school catchment areas as well as within...

The distribution of Roma and non-Roma students across schools has become considerably more unequal in Hungary since the 1980's. This paper analyzes the effect of school choice and local educational policies on that inequality, known as school segregation, in 100 Hungarian towns. We combine...

This paper evaluates the kindergarten attendance allowance program in Hungary, a conditional cash transfer (CTT) program introduced in 2009 that aimed to increase kindergarten enrollment of disadvantaged children aged 3 and 4. Administration of the program was decentralized, and we make use of...

Using unique data from Hungary, we assess the gap in standardized test scores between Roma and non-Roma students and show that this gap is comparable to the size of the Black-White test score gap in the United States in the 1980s. The ethnic test score gap in Hungary is nearly entirely explained...

This study examines friendship and hostility relations between Roma students and the ethnically homogeneous non-Roma majority in Hungarian schools. Using data on friendship and hostility relations of 15-year-old students from 82 schools the study focuses on the interaction between exposure to...

This study examines the effect of parental job loss on children's completion of secondary school and the mediating role of home environment in that effect. It uses rich survey data from Hungary on adolescents age 14 through 21, with detailed measures of parental employment and home environment....