Essays on the effects of immigration on education and crime

This thesis estimates the effects of immigration on education and crime. In Chapter I, I use a reform in immigration policy as a natural experiment to estimate the effects of immigration on native-born student outcomes in Texas. OLS estimates suggest a negative association between immigration and the passing rates of native students on a state-wide basic skills exam. However, these estimates are potentially biased by omitted variables or endogeneity. Differences-in-differences and IV estimates suggest that immigrants have a small positive effect on the outcomes of native Hispanic students and no effect on native White students. I provide evidence that resources provided for immigrants benefit native Hispanic students. In Chapter 2, I use the reform in immigration policy to estimate the effects of immigration on crime rates in Texas. OLS estimates indicate a positive correlation between immigration and crime. However, differences-in-differences and IV estimates suggest that immigrants have no effect on juvenile crime rates. In Chapter 3, I use a federal initiative to curtail illegal immigration to California as a natural experiment to estimate the effects of immigration on native student dropout rates. The operation created exogenous variation in immigration between different areas of the state. OLS estimates show a positive correlation between immigration and native dropout rates. However, differences-in-differences and IV estimates suggest that immigrants have no effect on native dropout rates.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Economics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Liu, Samuel T. (Samuel Tah-teh), 1973-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joshua D. Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke.

• Economics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9004

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9004