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School quality and educational attainment: Japanese American internment as a natural experiment

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  • Saavedra, Martin

Abstract

In 1942, the United States incarcerated all Japanese Americans on the West Coast, including children, in internment camps. Using non-West Coast Japanese Americans and non-Japanese Asians as control groups, I estimate the effect of attending a War Relocation Authority school on educational attainment. Non-linear difference-in-differences estimates suggest that attending school within the internment camps decreased the probability of receiving a post-collegiate education by approximately 4 to 5 percentage points and decreased the probability of receiving a college degree by between 2 and 7 percentage points. I find some evidence that attending a WRA school may have decreased the returns to education as well. By using un-incarcerated birth cohorts and races, placebo tests find no evidence that the identifying assumptions are violated.

Suggested Citation

  • Saavedra, Martin, 2015. "School quality and educational attainment: Japanese American internment as a natural experiment," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 59-78.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:57:y:2015:i:c:p:59-78
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2015.02.001
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    1. Arellano-Bover, Jaime, 2022. "Displacement, Diversity, and Mobility: Career Impacts of Japanese American Internment," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(1), pages 126-174, March.
    2. Steven B. Caudill & João Ricardo Faria & Franklin G. Mixon & Elliott H. Young, 2024. "Expropriation, money, and happiness: the impact of state theft in Russia," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 483-501, February.
    3. Shoag, Daniel & Carollo, Nicholas, 2016. "The Causal Effect of Place: Evidence from Japanese-American Internment," Working Paper Series 16-022, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Chan, Jeff, 2023. "Forced displacement and migrants' location choices: Evidence from the Japanese-Canadian experience during World War II," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 206-240.
    5. Saavedra, Martin, 2021. "Kenji or Kenneth? Pearl Harbor and Japanese-American assimilation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 602-624.
    6. Amponsah, Emefa Akua, 2018. "The Ghana School Feeding Programme, Home Environment and Learning Outcomes," Miscellaneous Publications 358824, University of Ghana, Institute of Statistical Social & Economic Research (ISSER).
    7. Grossman, Daniel & Khalil, Umair & Panza, Laura, 2025. "The Intergenerational Health Effects of Forced Displacement: Japanese American Incarceration during WWII," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy

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