Educational spillovers and parental migration

This paper studies whether children with parents working abroad (PWA) influence school performance of their classmates. Based on novel data for lower secondary pupils in Poland, I exploit within-class variation in the fraction of classmates whose parents work abroad over time. Estimates suggest that the presence of PWA classmates benefits pupils. The impact is driven by PWA girls and PWA pupils whose parents graduated from high school. This positive effect is likely due to the student level interactions or increased teachers' commitment to classes with students from migrant families.