Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185329 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11869
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper examines the impact of Syrian refugees on high school enrollment rates of native youth in Turkey. Syrian refugees are, on average, less skilled and more willing to work in low-pay informal jobs than Turkish natives. Refugees can influence native youth's school enrollment likelihood negatively through educational experience. But, at the same time, they can affect enrollment rates positively as they escalate competition for jobs with low-skill requirements. Using micro data from 2006 to 2016 and employing quasi-experimental methods, I find that high-school enrollment rates increased 2.7-3.6 percentage points among native youth in refugee-receiving regions. Furthermore, a one-percentage point increase in the refugee-to-population ratio in a region generates around 0.4 percentage point increase in native's high school enrollment rates. Most of the increase in high school enrollment comes from young males with lower parental backgrounds, which is consistent with the hypothesis that the main mechanism operates through the low-skill labor market. The regressions control for (i) variables proxying parental investment in human capital such as parental education, being in an intact family, and household size, (ii) regional economic activity, and (iii) regional availability of high schools and high school teachers.
Subjects: 
low-skill Syrian refugees
youth education
high school enrollment
JEL: 
I25
J61
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
6.11 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.