Essays in Education and Immigration Economics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance (Social Sciences)

This dissertation presents empirical studies of topics important in education and immigration economics. All three chapters study policies (or changes therein) related to immigration, education, or both within the United States.Chapter 1 studies how methods for public school financing impact school districts, particularly with respect to non-governmental revenue streams. I take a novel approach to understanding public school financing by focusing on a redistributive policy moving ‘excess’ taxable wealth from richer to poorer school districts in Texas: Senate Bill 7. I specifically examine whether non-governmental revenue streams are crowded out by government spending on education. I use administrative data from the Texas Education Agency and focus on the school districts that lost money through recapture of some of their local tax revenue. The school districts that were impacted by recapture were generally smaller, less racially diverse, and less economically disadvantaged than other school districts in Texas. Utilizing a staggered difference in differences approach, I find that for each dollar per pupil that is recaptured from a particular school district, that district receives additional privately sourced revenue. The findings imply very limited crowd out of private revenue sources on education as recaptured local district tax revenue is not made up by private donations or contributions to the school districts. This sheds light on how changes to public financing of schools might impact total school resources.Chapter 2 examines the potential scarring effects of immigrating to a relatively weak economy in the United States. Thousands of individuals immigrate to the United States every year. The state of the economy at the time and location in which they arrive could impact their future outcomes in the country. I take advantage of data from the New Immigrant Survey to explore the relationship between local economic conditions at the time of arrival for new legal permanent residents who arrive to the United States through the Family Green Card process. The timing and location of arrival to the United States for the recipients of the Family Green Card is plausibly exogenous as visa wait times are long and these individuals are moving to be with family. I employ a difference in difference approach to study the difference in economic outcomes for individuals who received Green Cards in the United States. I find that higher unemployment rates at the time and location of arrival result in lower future gross income for Family Green Card recipients. These results are robust to different samples and model specifications. My results shed light on the scarring effects of arriving to the United States in a weak labor market.Chapter 3 analyzes the Department of Homeland Security’s extensions to the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows international students to work in the United States after earning a higher education degree from the US. STEM students are now able to work in the United States for an additional 24 months (above the standard 12-months) after their degrees. This paper examines the effects of the OPT extensions using novel data from College and Beyond II, supplemented with University of California-Irvine administrative data. I primarily employ a cohort-based difference in difference approach to explore the relationship between the OPT policy change and undergraduate students’ degree choices. I find an increase in enrollment in STEM majors after the OPT extensions for international as well as for domestic students. Additional findings show that after the extensions, institutions with higher shares of international students have greater increases to STEM cohort sizes for their domestic students. I study institution-level responses to the policy changes to help uncover mechanisms behind my results, especially those for domestic students. At an institutional level, I find that new majors are more likely to be STEM and maximum seat allotment for STEM courses increases after the OPT extensions. Results from this research shed light on how the OPT extensions have impacted students and institutions, contributing to a broader understanding of the effects of immigration policies aimed at enhancing the United States higher education system and eventually the workforce.