Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Ong,  Cheng Boon
Author-Email: ong@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT / MGSoG
Author-Name: De Witte, Kristof
Author-Email: k.dewitte@maastrichtuniversity.nl 
Author-Workplace-Name: Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research,
	 Maastricht University, and Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven
Title: The influence of ethnic segregation and school mobility in primary education
	 on high school dropout: Evidence from regression discontinuity at a
	 contextual tipping point 
Abstract: This paper investigates the influence of ethnic composition and school 
	 mobility at the primary school-level on the propensity to drop out of 
	 high school. Using rich school and neighbourhood administrative data, we 
	 observe that (i) frequent school movers have a 2.6 times higher 
	 likelihood of early school leaving; (ii) the relationship between the 
	 share of non-western minority students (in primary school) and early 
	 school leaving is non-linear; and (iii) the influence of non-western 
	 peers on early school leaving is moderated by the student's ethnicity. 
	 Using polynomial regression and regression discontinuity methods, we 
	 observe a 'contextual tipping point' in ethnic peer composition that is 
	 linked to a discontinuous break in the predicted probability of school 
	 dropout. The conditional probability of school dropout increases by 5.4 
	 per cent points to 8.0 per cent if 'school stable' native Dutch students 
	 are enrolled in primary schools that exceed the contextual tipping point 
	 of 77.7 per cent non-western minority students.
Classification-JEL: I21, I22, J18, R20
Keywords: ethnic segregation, school mobility, school dropout, regression discontinuity,
	 tipping point
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20131217
Number: 064
File-URL: http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2013/wp2013-064.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2013064