The Power of Language:
Educational and Mental Health Impacts of
Language Training for Refugee Children*
This paper examines the causal impact of a large-scale Turkish language training program on
the academic performance, school participation, and mental well-being of Syrian refugee
children in T¨urkiye. Using rich administrative data and a staggered difference-in-differences
design, we find that the program led to improvements in Turkish language and Math
scores of refugee students, along with a significant reduction in their school absences. The
language gains and associated improvements in school outcomes are more pronounced for
younger refugee children with lower pre-program academic performance, which suggests
that early language interventions are more effective for integration. In addition, we provide
evidence that the language training program generated modest positive spillovers on
native students. Finally, we identify mental health as a potential key channel through which
the program enhanced educational outcomes, as alleviating language barriers improved
concentration, reduced anxiety, and decreased bullying. Our findings underline the critical
role of language training in improving refugee students’ educational outcomes and mental
well-being, and fostering social cohesion.
"The Power of Language: Educational and Mental Health Impacts of Language Training for Refugee Children" by @semihtumen.bsky.social @mvlass.bsky.social and @jackiewahba.bsky.social #EconSky #MenaSky
docs.iza.org/dp17593.pdf
10.01.2025 15:46 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
NEW #IFSWorkingPaper: Spillovers in criminal networks: Evidence from co-offender deaths
Read Matthew Lindquist, Eleonora Patacchini, @mvlass.bsky.social and @yveszenou.bsky.social study on spillover effects within criminal networks by leveraging the deaths of co-offenders: https://buff.ly/4gl45t2
09.12.2024 15:19 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Beautiful view indeed!
16.03.2024 19:10 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Exciting opportunity! The Department of Economics at the University of Southampton is looking for a talented individual to join us as a Lecturer. We are particularly interested in candidates with interests in Applied Economics. Details here: jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
17.11.2023 15:44 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The Role of Child Gender in the Formation of Parents' Social Networks
Focusing on early childhood, we leverage a rich dataset from rural Bangladesh to investigate the role of children's gender in parental network formation. We est
New paper alert: Network formation model of parents (with A.Houndetoungan, A.Islam, and Y.Zenou). Key determinant is the child's gender. Counterfactual: If all children share the same gender, households would have approximately 15% more links. Link here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
18.10.2023 10:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Integrating refugee children through teacher training: voxdev.org/topic/health...
16.10.2023 11:18 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
CEPR-TCD-TIME conference in DevEcon is happening 13-14 Oct in Dublin. @mvlass.bsky.social is presenting our fresh new paper on 'Edutainment and Interethnic Relationships' tomorrow after lunch. If you're around, don't miss it! Draft and a 🧵 will be out soon!
12.10.2023 21:20 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Congratulations Steffen!
09.10.2023 16:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Hello! Excited to give this a try!
02.10.2023 21:55 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Addressing inequalities, poverty and crime | Glasgow Uni | ARC | IZA | #RunForCharity #MarathonRunner Athens 2021, Thessaloniki 2022, Edinburgh 2023
Department of Economics at the University of Southampton
Econ Assistant Prof at Sheffield | IZA Research Fellow | Visiting Fellow at LSE and UCL | Parenting, child development, gender, education, social mobility | From Genoa, living in London | First Gen in HE | Mum of 2 | https://gretamorando.weebly.com/
Education and Labour economist @UCL, visiting fellow @LSE Social Policy and @SSE, @ESCoE associate, @ADR UK fellow. Ex NIESR. Assistant prof of economics at Southampton from Sept 2025. From Bari, Europe.
Applied economist working on migration. Research Fellow at the University of Southampton.
Personal page:
https://sites.google.com/view/valentina-di-iasio/home-page
Behavioral economist at University of Bologna
https://sites.google.com/site/stefaniabortolotti/home
Associate Professor in Economics at King's College London - Development Economics, Health Economics, Political Economy
Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol. Development, migration, culture, and behavior. tomanbarsbai.com
Prof at UoNottingham. Econ, Political Economy, Migration and Trade. Italian
Econ AP at University of Innsbruck
www.jbuggle.com
Associate prof @uni_copenhagen @Economics_UCPH. Senior researcher @RockwoolFonden. Affiliated with @iza_bonn and @CReAM_Research.
Professor of economics at George Mason University, fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics, IZA, CReAM/UCL, CEPR, CGD. Associate Editor JEP. USAID 2021–2024. Personal views exclusively.
Web: http://mclem.org
ORCID: 0000-0003-1354-0965
economist ~ applied micro pays the rent ~ prof @wuvienna.bsky.social (prior @jkulinz & @uniinnsbruck) ~ likes to run (regressions) ~ austrian politics 🇦🇹
www: https://sites.google.com/site/mhalla1980/
Behavioral economist at NYU Abu Dhabi studying discrimination, social norms, and gender. Proud father, reluctant dog owner, daily motto: Pura Vida.
Professor of Economics - Applied Microeconomics, Causal Inference
News from the editors of Econometrica
Economist, Associate Prof. @ Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota Development/Labor/Education/Gender/ECD/Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa.
Professor of Economics | NovaSBE
Founder and Scientific Director | NOVAFRICA @novafrica.bsky.social
International migration, economic development & policy impact evaluation
https://catiabatista.org/
Professor of Economics, University of Southampton.
Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. Sociologist. Network Scientist. Physician. Author of Apollo's Arrow; Blueprint; Connected; and Death Foretold. Director of the Human Nature Lab: https://humannaturelab.net
