In the first chapter of this thesis, the 1995 TIMSS eighth -grade mathematics score is used
to proxy for home country education quality for U.S. immigrants. On average, a one standard
deviation increase in TIMSS magnifies the marginal returns to post-migrational education by 0.83
percentage points. This pre-migrational education quality effect remains positive and significant
for individuals at the 25th percentile of the conditional wage distribution. In addition, diminishing
returns to post-migrational years of schooling is observed at all wage quantiles, but evidence is
mixed in regards to pre-migrational years of education. Using the 2000 Census, the second paper
finds that, compared to another immigrant holding a job that requires less human-interaction, an
immigrant worker who possesses knowledge in speaking a non-English language and who works
in a human-interaction-intensive occupation would enjoy an average wage benefit of 4.47%. For an
immigrant, other immigrants from a different home country are perceived as complements, while
those from the same country of origin would be substitutes. Moreover, a one standard deviation
increase in bilateral trade volume between the United States and the immigrant's country of origin
is predicted to enhance the immigrant's returns to working in the Wholesale Trade industry by
3.36% on average, a pattern that is very different for immigrants whose country of origin uses
English as an official language. A positive relationship between parental involvement in readingrelated
activities before the student began schooling and the student's 2001 PIRLS test score is
found in the third chapter. On average, having a parent who played alphabet toys, played word
games, and read signs and labels out loud during the student's preschool years is predicted
to carry an effect size of 0.2, holding other attributes constant. However, the effect of watching
reading programs on television on this test score seems negative. Under a quantile regression
framework, the effect of these parental inputs continues to be observed for students belonging
to the 25th quantile of the conditional score distribution. Lastly, these academic variables are
predicted to not affect an immigrant student's PIRLS score, although small sample size may be
an issue