Paralyzed by Panic: Measuring the Effect of School Closures during the 1916 Polio Pandemic on Educational Attainment

Keith Meyers () and Melissa Thomasson ()

No 23890, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We leverage the 1916 polio pandemic in the United States as a natural experiment to test whether short-term school closures result in reduced educational attainment as an adult. With over 23,000 cases of polio diagnosed in 1916, officials implemented quarantines and closed schools. Since the pandemic occurred during the start of the 1916 school year, children of working age may have elected not to return to school. Using state-level polio morbidity as a proxy for schooling disruptions, we find that children ages 14-17 during the pandemic had less educational attainment in 1940 compared to their slightly older peers.

JEL-codes: I18 I26 N22 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hea, nep-his and nep-ure
Note: DAE ED
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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