Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools

Abstract

Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.

The Unequal Distribution of Opportunity: A National Audit Study of Bureaucratic Discrimination in Primary School Access

“…We show that in policy choices made far from electoral processes, bureaucrats discriminate against ethnic minorities in the provision of public services. In this context, the evidence of bureaucratic discrimination we offer is important not just because it raises awareness of the problem to policy makers, but also because it can help solve the problem by holding a mirror to public officials, encouraging them to align their ideals and their actions (Alesina et al 2018).…”

“…In this context, the evidence of bureaucratic discrimination we offer is important not just because it raises awareness of the problem to policy makers, but also because it can help solve the problem by holding a mirror to public officials, encouraging them to align their ideals and their actions (Alesina et al. 2018).…”

“…For example, Alesina et al. (2018) find that exposing teachers to evidence that they hold stereotyped views led them to partially reduce a previously observed bias against immigrant students in grading.…”

STEM Skills Initiatives for Adolescent Girls in the LAC Region

“…The role of teachers in influencing career choices and as role models often contributes to academic performance. In STEM, more gender parity in teaching staff can lead to more egalitarian performance for girls and boys in STEM subjects (⇡Alesina et al, 2018). In Argentina, as in many other countries in the world, the majority of STEM teachers in schools are men (⇡Basco & Lavena, 2019;⇡UNICEF, 2020).…”

Advising, gender, and performance: Evidence from a university with exogenous adviser–student gender match

“…As shown in TableA5, there is no discernible change in the results.15 As in most fixed effect models, our estimates are still subject to time-variant confounders.16 A number of prior studies investigate the importance of female introductory instructor for female students. For instance, whileBettinger and Long (2005) use an instrumental variable approach and find mixed results for different majors,Carrell et al (2010) exploit a natural experiment and find strong support for positive effects on high-achieving female students taking STEM courses with female instructors in introductory classes.17 The sharpened q-values are 0.011, 0.027, 0.027, 0.027 for 4-year retention, 1-year retention, 2-year retention, cumulative GPA, respectively.In other words, they remain statistically significant at the 5% level.18 For the efficacy of such an intervention, seeAlesina et al (2018).19 The literature on gender spillovers hypothesizes that the positive effects of gender pairing in the supervisor-supervisee relationship on supervisee career outcomes stem from direct channels such as mentoring of supervisees by supervisors as well as indirect channels such as inspiration and role-model effects. As discussed in Sections 1 and 2, the direct (mentoring) and indirect (inspiration and role-model) channels are also the primary sources of the positive effects of gender pairing in the adviser-student relationship on student outcomes.…”