The Legacy of COVID-19 in Education

Katharina Werner and Ludger Woessmann

No 14796, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic impeded children's skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic's effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature with new evidence from German longitudinal time-use surveys. Based on the conceptual framework of an education production function, we cover evidence on child, parent, and school inputs and students' cognitive and socio-emotional development. The German panel evidence shows that children's learning time decreased severely during the first school closures, particularly for low-achieving students, and increased only slightly one year later. In a value-added model, learning time increases with daily online class instruction, but not with other school activities. The review shows substantial losses in cognitive skills on achievement tests, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Socio-emotional wellbeing also declined in the short run. Structural models and reduced-form projections suggest that unless remediated, the school closures will persistently reduce skill development, lifetime income, and economic growth and increase inequality.

Keywords: COVID-19; school closures; education; schools; students; educational inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I20 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2021-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published - published in: Economic Policy , 2023, 38 (115), 609-668

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Legacy of COVID-19 in Education (2022)
Working Paper: The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education (2021)
Working Paper: The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education (2021)
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