“Racial and gendered impacts of international students on domestic peers,” co-authored by Assistant Professor of Economics Evelyn Skoy, was recently published in the Elsevier journal Economics of Education Review.
Skoy and fellow researchers Francisca M. Antman and Paul Kim (University of Colorado Boulder) examined the possible impact of international first-year students on the academic outcomes of their domestic peers in introductory economics courses.
They found that “an increased share of international student peers reduces the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic White and Asian men while increasing the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic men from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.”
The study also showed that “higher shares of international student peers also increase the likelihood that domestic White and Asian men major in business and decrease the likelihood that some men drop out of college.”
Also, “an increased share of international student peers reduces the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic White and Asian men while increasing the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic men from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.”
The authors noted that, in general, they did not see “statistically significant results for women in the full sample,” but that “women in large classes generally show similar responses to men overall, though the results by racial subgroups of women vary more widely,” which they say may be due to smaller sample sizes.
Posted April 13, 2026
