Does Reducing College Costs Improve Educational Outcomes for Undocumented Immigrants? Evidence from State Laws Permitting Undocumented Immigrants to Pay In-State Tuition at State Colleges and Universities

41 Pages Posted: 26 Apr 2010 Last revised: 15 Jul 2023

See all articles by Aimee Chin

Aimee Chin

University of Houston - Department of Economics

Chinhui Juhn

University of Houston - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: April 2010

Abstract

Ten states, beginning with Texas and California in 2001, have passed laws permitting undocumented students to pay the in-state tuition rate - rather than the more expensive out-of-state tuition rate - at public universities and colleges. We exploit state-time variation in the passage of the laws to evaluate the effects of these laws on the educational outcomes of Hispanic childhood immigrants who are not U.S. citizens. Specifically, through the use of individual-level data from the 2001-2005 American Community Surveys supplemented by the 2000 U.S. Census, we estimate the effect of the laws on the probability of attending college for 18- to 24-year-olds who have a high school degree and the probability of dropping out of high school for 16- to 17-year-olds. We find some evidence suggestive of a positive effect of the laws on the college attendance of older Mexican men, although estimated effects of the laws in general are not significantly different from zero.

Suggested Citation

Chin, Aimee Y. and Juhn, Chinhui, Does Reducing College Costs Improve Educational Outcomes for Undocumented Immigrants? Evidence from State Laws Permitting Undocumented Immigrants to Pay In-State Tuition at State Colleges and Universities (April 2010). NBER Working Paper No. w15932, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1594566

Aimee Y. Chin (Contact Author)

University of Houston - Department of Economics ( email )

Houston, TX 77204-5882
United States

Chinhui Juhn

University of Houston - Department of Economics ( email )

Houston, TX 77204-5882
United States
713-743-3823 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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