White Flight from Asian Immigration: Evidence from California Public Schools
Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the US but we know little about how Asian immigration has affected cities, neighborhoods and schools. This paper studies white flight from Asian arrivals in high-socioeconomic-status Californian school districts from 2000-2016 using initial settlement patterns and national immigrant flows to instrument for entry. We find that, as Asian students arrive, white student enrollment declines in higher-income suburbs. These patterns cannot be fully explained by racial animus, housing prices, or correlations with Black/Hispanic arrivals. Parental fears of academic competition may play a role.
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Copy CitationLeah Platt Boustan, Christine Cai, and Tammy Tseng, "White Flight from Asian Immigration: Evidence from California Public Schools," NBER Working Paper 31434 (2023), https://doi.org/10.3386/w31434.
Published Versions
Leah Boustan & Christine Cai & Tammy Tseng, 2023. "JUE Insight: White flight from Asian immigration: Evidence from California Public Schools," Journal of Urban Economics, .