Research
Job market paper
In the Shadow of Brothers: Educational Achievements of Migrant Girls
Gender-bias in parental investments can have subtle implications for how education policies affect migrant girls. This study uses a regression discontinuity design to explore how Sweden’s school entry policy interacts with family structure to shape migrant girls’ educational outcomes. First, I assess the direct impact of late school entry on migrant girls’ academic performance, with attention to how this varies depending on the gender of their younger sibling. Second, I explore sibling spillover effects on migrant girls when an older sibling, either a sister or brother, enters school late. The findings reveal two key insights: Late school entry benefits migrant girls with younger sisters, but not those with younger brothers. Additionally, spending more time at home with an older brother who enters school late has lasting negative spillover effects on younger sisters’ educational outcomes. I propose a simple theory to explain these results, highlighting gender bias in parental preferences as a key factor. Bolstering this empirically, I present evidence showing that these negative impacts are specific to migrant girls, with neither migrant boys nor native children experiencing similar effects. Moreover, the effects are more pronounced in migrant families with traditional backgrounds and are also reflected in mothers’ labor supply decisions when sons, rather than daughters, enter school late.
Presented at the EALE annual Conference 2024, IZA Summer School 2024, The 14th International Workshop of Education Economics (IWAEE) 2024, CESifo Labor Conference 2024, UCSD phd seminar in spring 2024, CESifo/CES Workshop on the Economics of Children 2023, 1st Workshop on Education Economics and Policy (WEEP) 2023, The 61st Annual ESPE Meeting 2023. Description in Swedish here.
Work in progress
- Joint versus Sole Custody after Divorce: Causal Effects on Child Outcomes and Family Environment
Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Find more information here.
- Linguistic Distance and the Gender Gap in Education