Do Human Capital Decisions Respond to the Returns to Education? Evidence from DACA
利用DACA项目提供的临时工作许可和免驱逐保护，研究发现该政策显著提高了无证移民青年的高中入学率和毕业率，使公民与非公民的毕业差距缩小了40%。
This paper studies human capital responses to the availability of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary work authorization and deferral from deportation for undocumented, high-school-educated youth. We use a sample of young adults that migrated to the United States as children to implement a difference-in-difference design that compares noncitizen immigrants (“eligible”) to citizen immigrants (“ineligible”) over time. We find that DACA significantly increased high school attendance and high school graduation rates, reducing the citizen-noncitizen gap in graduation by 40 percent. We also find positive, though imprecise, impacts on college attendance.