RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Peer Discrimination in the Classroom and Academic Achievement
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 0919-10460R3
DO 10.3368/jhr.59.2.0919-10460R3
A1 Andrew J. Hill
A1 Weina Zhou
YR 2021
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/05/04/jhr.59.2.0919-10460R3.abstract
AB Perceived peer discrimination in the classroom reduces school performance. Considering the context of rural migrants in urban China, we find that migrant students’ test scores are lower when local classmates report more anti-migrant discrimination. Our empirical strategy relies on isolating exogenous variation in locals’ discriminatory attitudes toward rural migrants across randomly assigned classrooms in the same school. We use whether locals had migrant friends outside school in their first year of middle school to instrument for discrimination in the classroom. The negative effects of perceived discrimination are largest for migrant students with less educated parents, lower ability, and lower self-confidence.