Community Influence as an Explanatory Factor Why Roma Children Get Little Schooling

Oded Stark and Ruxanda Berlinschi ()
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Ruxanda Berlinschi: KU Leuven

No 14002, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Parents who experience poverty and who want to provide their children with an escape route can be expected to encourage and support their progeny's education. The evidence that Roma parents behave differently is unsettling. In this paper we test empirically an explanation for that behavior. The explanation is based on a theory (Stark et al. 2018) that can be "borrowed" to rationalize the enforcement of norms of little formal education in underprivileged communities. An analysis of survey data collected in Roma communities in four Central and Eastern European countries lends support to the explanation. The analysis reveals a strong negative correlation between the influence of the Roma community on an individual member's life and the importance accorded by the individual to formal schooling for children. The correlation is robust to controlling for standard determinants of attitudes towards schooling, such as poverty, unemployment, labor market discrimination, and parents' educational attainment. The analysis suggests that policy interventions aiming to increase the formal education of Roma children need to reckon with the influence of Roma community norms on individual choices.

Keywords: community influence; social norms; social distance; exposure to relative deprivation; Roma communities; formal education of children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J24 J70 O12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Published - published in: Public Choice, 2021, 189, 93–11

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Related works:
Journal Article: Community influence as an explanatory factor why Roma children get little schooling (2021)
Working Paper: Community influence as an explanatory factor why Roma children get little schooling (2021)
Working Paper: Community influence as an explanatory factor why Roma children get little schooling (2021)
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