Working Papers
I examine the labor market response of undocumented youth that participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA provides temporary work authorization and deferral from deportation to eligible undocumented youth. I use data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to construct a probabilistic measure for the unobserved DACA participation. Using ACS data, I estimate a two-sample model of the effect of participating in the DACA program. I also estimate the spillover effects of DACA on eligible but non-participating undocumented youth. I find that DACA significantly improved labor market outcomes of DACA recipients, with magnitude of the treatment-on-the-treated effects at least twice as large as the intent-to-treat estimates obtained from using only the observed eligibility indicator. I also find an increase in school attendance among DACA recipients. Evidence of a negative spillover effect on eligible non-participants is documented with a decrease in labor force participation and school attendance.