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The impact of immigrant concentration in schools on grade retention in Spain: a difference-in-differences approach

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Pedraja-Chaparro
  • Daniel Santín
  • Rosa Simancas

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, Spain has played host to a sizeable flow of immigrants who have been absorbed into the compulsory stage of the education system. In this article, our aim is to assess the impact of that exogenous increase in the number of immigrant students from 2003 to 2009 on grade retention using Spanish data from PISA 2003 and 2009. For this purpose, we use the difference-in-differences method as a dose treatment capable of detecting whether the immigrant concentration has had a significant effect on student performance. Our results evidenced that their arrival does not on average decrease school promotion rates with respect to 2003 and is even beneficial to native students. However, although the concentration of immigrant students at the same school does have a negative impact on immigrant students generating more grade retention, native students are unaffected until concentrations of immigrant students is above 15%.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Pedraja-Chaparro & Daniel Santín & Rosa Simancas, 2016. "The impact of immigrant concentration in schools on grade retention in Spain: a difference-in-differences approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(21), pages 1978-1990, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:48:y:2016:i:21:p:1978-1990
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1111989
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    Cited by:

    1. Bilach, Thomas J. & Roche, Sean Patrick & Wawro, Gregory J., 2020. "The Effects of the Summer All Out Foot Patrol Initiative in New York City: A Difference-in-Differences Approach," SocArXiv ep4fs, Center for Open Science.
    2. Tommaso Agasisti & Ekaterina Abalmasova & Ekaterina Shibanova & Aleksei Egorov, 2019. "The Causal Impact Of Performance-Based Funding On University Performance: Quasi-Experimental Evidence From A Policy In Russian Higher Education," HSE Working papers WP BRP 221/EC/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. David Martínez Rojas & Wilson Muñoz Henríquez & Carlos Mondaca Rojas, 2021. "Racism, Interculturality, and Public Policies: An Analysis of the Literature on Migration and the School System in Chile, Argentina, and Spain," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, January.
    4. Badunenko, Oleg & D’Inverno, Giovanna & De Witte, Kristof, 2023. "On distinguishing the direct causal effect of an intervention from its efficiency-enhancing effects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(1), pages 432-447.
    5. repec:osf:socarx:ep4fs_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. José M. Cordero & Víctor Cristóbal & Daniel Santín, 2018. "Causal Inference On Education Policies: A Survey Of Empirical Studies Using Pisa, Timss And Pirls," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 878-915, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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