Report

Racial Identity and Education

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Patacchini, Eleonora
Zenou, Yves

Abstract / Description

We investigate the sources of differences in school performance between students of different races by focusing on identity issues. We find that having a higher percentage of same-race friends has a positive effect of white teenagers' test score while having a negative effect on blacks' test scores. However, the higher the education level of a black teenager's parent, the lower this negative effect, while for whites, it is the reverse. It is thus the combination of the choice of friends (which is a measure of own identity) and the parent's education that are responsible for the difference in education attainment between students of different races but also between students of the same race. One interesting aspects of this paper is to provide a theoretical model that grounds the instrumental variable approach used in the empirical analysis to deal with endogeneity issues.

Keyword(s)

Minderheit Freund Schulerfolg Gruppeneffekt ethnic minorities peer effects education achievement endogeneity issues

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2006

Is part of series

Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;2046

Citation

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Patacchini, Eleonora
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Zenou, Yves
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2022-11-17T11:02:54Z
  • Made available on
    2008-06-09
  • Made available on
    2015-12-01T10:32:13Z
  • Made available on
    2022-11-17T11:02:54Z
  • Date of first publication
    2006
  • Abstract / Description
    We investigate the sources of differences in school performance between students of different races by focusing on identity issues. We find that having a higher percentage of same-race friends has a positive effect of white teenagers' test score while having a negative effect on blacks' test scores. However, the higher the education level of a black teenager's parent, the lower this negative effect, while for whites, it is the reverse. It is thus the combination of the choice of friends (which is a measure of own identity) and the parent's education that are responsible for the difference in education attainment between students of different races but also between students of the same race. One interesting aspects of this paper is to provide a theoretical model that grounds the instrumental variable approach used in the empirical analysis to deal with endogeneity issues.
    en
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-psydok-16566
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11780/1117
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.8967
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Is part of
    IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 2046
  • Is part of series
    Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit/ Institute for the Study of Labor: IZA Discussion Paper Series;2046
  • Keyword(s)
    Minderheit
    de
  • Keyword(s)
    Freund
    de
  • Keyword(s)
    Schulerfolg
    de
  • Keyword(s)
    Gruppeneffekt
    de
  • Keyword(s)
    ethnic minorities
    en
  • Keyword(s)
    peer effects
    en
  • Keyword(s)
    education achievement
    en
  • Keyword(s)
    endogeneity issues
    en
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Racial Identity and Education
    en
  • DRO type
    report
  • Visible tag(s)
    PsyDok