The Effect of Language at School on Identity and Political Outlooks Oriol Aspachs, FMG and LSE Irma Clots-Figueras, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Paolo Masella, EUI

Questions Can policies affect identity? FOCUS ON ONE POLICY: Language at School. Did the educational policy affect political choices?

1983's Catalan law of linguistic normalisation in the education system: All-in-Spanish education era ends: The education system becomes Catalan based. The new law won't imply students’ separation for language reasons. At least two subjects per year must be taught in Spanish.

Identity Question: “With which of the following sentences do you identify the most? “ 1) I feel only Spanish 2) I feel more Spanish than Catalan 3) I feel as Spanish as Catalan 4) I feel more Catalan than Spanish 5) I feel only Catalan

Our Contribution: Policies can affect identity LITERATURE ON IDENTITY: Akerlof and Kranton(2000), (2002), (2005) (2007).  Our paper analyzes the effects of an educational policy on identity. Charness, Rigotti and Rustichini (2006), Mc Leish and Oxoby (2007) Eckel and Grossman (2005) provide laboratory experiments that show how group identity affects individual behavior

LITERATURE ON CULTURAL TRANSMISSION AND THE EFFECTS OF CULTURE: Bisin and Verdier (2000), Fernandez et al (2002)), Guiso et al (2004).  if we consider identity as part of our cultural background, we show that education affects identity. LITERATURE ON ENDOGENOUS PREFERENCES: (Bowles)  If identity is considered as part of the utility function: our paper isolates a particular institutional arrangement (bilingual education) that is able to influence individual preferences.

Our Contribution (2) LITERATURE ON THE EFFECTS OF ETHNIC DIVERSITY: Ethnic diversity has been associated with lower growth and worse quality governments (Easterly and Levine(1997), La Porta et al 1999)). Montalvo and Reynal (2005): ethnic fractionalization lowers the rate of investment, while ethnic polarization increases the probability of civil wars.  We are trying to understand empirically the determinants of ethnic identity.

Our Contribution (3) LITERATURE THAT STUDIES THE DETERMINANTS OF TURNOUT AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR (Merlo (2006),Milligan et al. (2004)).  We analyze the effect of educational policies on political choices in divided societies.

Strategy Representative survey data on the Institutional Attachment of residents in Catalonia to the Spanish Sate published by : (No 2407) “Centro de Investigationes Sociologicas”, 2001www.cis.es Intensity (of treatment) Number of years of education under the reform (which varies across cohorts and educational groups) Primary education lasts 8 years and secondary education lasts 4 years (university education not affected by the reform) An individual from the 1966 cohort that completed secondary education will have 1 year of treatment the treatment cohorts are those born between , while the control cohorts are those born between

Main specification y ijm = α+ βL ijm + γ j + δ m + X ijm μ + ε ijm (Similar to Angrist et al (2006)) y ijm indicates whether individual i, from cohort j and m years of education feels only Spanish, more Spanish than Catalan, as Spanish as Catalan, more Catalan than Spanish or only Catalan. L ijm is the length of exposure to teaching in Catalan. X ijm is a vector of individual-level control variables, including origin, parent’s origin, gender and province. γ j year of birth dummies; δ m years of education dummies

Identification Identification assumption: there is no other variable that affects how the cohort-years of education groups feel about the Catalan identity issue. ISSUES: –Cohort-education trends –Contemporaneous events –Are years of education endogenous? –Are migration flows endogenous?

Robustness (1) cohort-education specific trends Falsification test :Cohorts (not affected by the reform), pseudo-treatment to cohorts Contemporaneous events (end of dictatorship) comparison to the Basque country

Robustness (2) Endogeneity of years of education We control for the language spoken at home We use the number of years in which schooling was compulsory. Endogeneity of the migration decision 1.We compare migration flows in Catalonia with migration flows in Madrid. 2.We restrict our attention on individuals born in Catalonia whose parents were in Catalonia prior than 1983.

Effects on Individuals of Different Origins Check whether the reform had a different effect on people –Not born in Catalonia –Born in Catalonia with both parents born in Catalonia –Born in Catalonia with only one parent born in Catalonia –Born in Catalonia with none of the parents born in Catalonia. we find the reform had a uniform impact on all the Catalan population

Political choices 2 political choices: whether the respondent (1) declares to have voted in the 1999 regional election (turnout) (2) declares to have voted for an ethnic party we find the reform stimulates turnout in regional elections and ethnic voting

Conclusions Policies (education) can have an effect on identity Language can be regarded, not only as a communication tool, but also as an attribute of cultural identity. Effects not only on preferences, but also on actions.

The use of Catalan at school increased with the reform

Effects at each level of treatment y ijm = α+ ∑ k β k I(L ijm =k)+ γ j + δ m + X ijm μ + ε ijm Where k=1…12 and I() is the indicator function

Catalonia vs Basque Country

Robustness: Restricting the sample

Contemporaneous Events End of dictatorship effect: comparison to the Basque country. After the law (mid eighties), Catalan media started appearing: problematic if it affects younger and more educated people more than the rest  Information on media exposure today.

Other Surveys CIS 1998: use of language CIS 2006 (1): post referendum CIS 2006 (2): post election Bofill Database: –1st Round (2001) –3rd Round (2004) –4rd Round (2005)  SAME CONCLUSIONS

Interpretation multicultural policy within Spain (Catalans are the minority) nation building policy within Catalonia (respondents not born in Catalonia or whose parents do not have Catalan origins are the minority)  multicultural policies stimulate regional identities while nation building policies promote a common national feeling.

Marginal effects-origin

Triple difference in differences we consider cohorts y ijm = α+ βL ijm + kl ijm + γ j + δ m + X ijm μ + ε ijm L ijm are the years of real treatment for cohorts (captures real exposure to teaching in Catalan) l ijm equals years of pseudo treatment for cohorts and years of real treatment for cohorts (captures spurious effects)