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Title: Does Immigration Crowd Natives Into or Out of Higher Education?

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2011

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Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of immigration on the college enrollment of natives. Existing studies have primarily focused on the eff ect of increased immigrant demand for schooling on native enrollment. However, changes in immigrant labor supply may also aff ect native enrollment if they alter the net benefi t of higher education by changing local market prices. Using decadal U.S. Census microdata from 1970 to 2000, I fi nd that state-level increases in immigrant college students do not significantly lower the rate of native college enrollment in those states. In contrast, state-level increases in relatively unskilled immigrant labor do signifi cantly raise the proportion of natives in those states going to college. The identifi cation of a crowd-in eff ect and the lack of a signifi cant crowd-out eff ect are suggestive of college demand that is fairly wage-sensitive and college slots that are flexibly supplied over a decadal time horizon. Consistent with this, the crowd-in eff ect of immigrant labor inflows is larger for young natives, who may be moresensitive to college returns than older natives, as well as for natives on the margin of public school attendance, where college supply is likely more elastic.

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Authors: Jackson, Osborne

Conference Name: Population Association of America

Publisher Location: Washington, D.C.

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Migration and Immigration

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