American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Katrina's Children: Evidence on the Structure of Peer Effects from Hurricane Evacuees
American Economic Review
vol. 102,
no. 5, August 2012
(pp. 2048–82)
Abstract
In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced many children to relocate across the Southeast. While schools quickly enrolled evacuees, families in receiving schools worried about the impacts on incumbent students. We find no effect, on average, of the inflow of evacuees on achievement in Houston. In Louisiana we find little impact on average and we reject linear-in-means models. Moreover, we find that student achievement improves with high achieving peers and worsens with low achieving peers. Finally, an increase in the inflow of evacuees raised incumbent absenteeism and disciplinary problems in Houston's secondary schools. (JEL I21, Q54)Citation
Imberman, Scott A., Adriana D. Kugler, and Bruce I. Sacerdote. 2012. "Katrina's Children: Evidence on the Structure of Peer Effects from Hurricane Evacuees." American Economic Review 102 (5): 2048–82. DOI: 10.1257/aer.102.5.2048Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I21 Analysis of Education
- Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters; Global Warming