Kalena E. Cortes

Are Refugees Different from Economic Immigrants? Some Empirical Evidence on the Heterogeneity of Immigrant Groups in the United States

This paper analyzes how the implicit difference in time horizons between refugees and economic immigrants affects subsequent human capital investments and wage assimilation. The analysis uses the 1980 and 1990 Integrated Public Use Samples of the Census to study labor market outcomes of immigrants who arrived in the United States from 1975 to 1980. I find that in 1980 refugee immigrants in this cohort earned 6 less and worked 14 fewer hours than economic immigrants. Both had approximately the same level of English skills. The two immigrant groups had made substantial gains by 1990; however, refugees had made greater gains. In fact, the labor market outcomes of refugee immigrants surpassed those of economic immigrants. In 1990, refugees from the 1975-1980 arrival cohort earned 20 more, worked 4 more hours, and improved their English skills by 11 relative to economic immigrants. The higher rates of human capital accumulation for refugee immigrants contribute to these findings.

Chapter 12 – The Refugee/Asylum Seeker

Abstract This chapter discusses the research in economics on refugees and asylum seekers. Section 1 describes the trends in asylum seeking by source and host country. Section 2 presents a conceptual framework on why refugees might differ from other types of immigrants, and provides a new analysis comparing refugees to other immigrants in the United States using a sample of immigrants recently granted legal permanent residency. Section 3 describes a conceptual framework on why investments in host-country-specific human capital might differ between refugees and other immigrants, and presents a new analysis of refugee economic integration in the United States using synthetic panel data. Section 4 synthesizes the literature on the impact of refugees on sending and receiving communities. Section 5 discusses some political economy issues surrounding refugees, and their implications for modeling host nations’ asylum policy choices. The chapter closes in Section 6 with suggestions for further research.

Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment

We study an intensive math instruction policy that assigned low-skilled ninth graders to an algebra course that doubled instructional time, altered peer composition and emphasized problem solving skills. A regression discontinuity design shows substantial positive impacts of double-dose algebra on credits earned, test scores, high school graduation, and college enrollment rates. Test score effects underpredict attainment effects, highlighting the importance of long-run evaluation of such a policy. Perhaps because the intervention focused on verbal exposition of mathematical concepts, the impact was largest for students with below-average reading skills, emphasizing the need to target interventions toward appropriately skilled students.

Apply Yourself: Racial and Ethnic Differences in College Application

Access to higher education begins with a students decision whether and where to apply to college. This paper examines racial and ethnic differences in college application behavior of high school graduates, using two recent graduation cohorts from Texas. We estimate racial and ethnic differences in the probability of applying to college, controlling for a students college readiness, high school quality, certainty of college admissions, and high school fixed effects. We then investigate racial and ethnic differences in the choice of where to apply. We enhance the typical model of college matching by considering the social setting and high school feeder patterns of state universities. We find that racial and ethnic gaps in application rates, particularly for Hispanic students, are not explained by differential levels of college readiness, high school quality, or information regarding college admission processes. When applying to college, minorities are influenced by more than just matching their academic ability to the institution, and prefer institutions with a large proportion of same-race students and campuses where same-race students from their high school have been successful in the past.

The Incentive Effects of the Top 10% Plan

This paper investigates the incentive effects of the Texas Top 10% Plan on high school students’ academic achievement. The Top 10% Plan substantially improved the probability of admissions to state flagship public universities for students from low-performing Texas high schools. We find that under the Top 10% policy, low-performing high schools – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quintiles in the school achievement distribution – experience a larger increase in academic achievement, as measured by 10th-grade TAAS pass rates, relative to schools in the top quintile. Furthermore, this pattern holds for students of all races. Sensitivity analyses show that our findings are not a result of pre-existing trends, school accountability requirements, or strategic choice of high schools.