Employment Opportunities and High School Completion during the COVID-19 Recession

Kunwon Ahn (), Jun Yeong Lee () and John Winters
Additional contact information
Kunwon Ahn: Korea Labor Institute
Jun Yeong Lee: Iowa State University

No 13802, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: COVID-19 created major disruptions for young people including health concerns, school closures, reduced social opportunities, and a wilting economy. We examine the effect of COVID-19 on high school completion in the United States. We find that high school completion rates increased considerably in 2020 compared to previous years. We investigate various mechanisms and find that worse employment conditions were the driving force. The lower opportunity costs of schooling because of the pandemic recession encouraged more young people to complete high school. The pandemic created extensive problems in education, but fortunately it did not reduce overall high school completion rates.

Keywords: education; employment; recession; COVID-19; human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Employment Opportunities and High School Completion during the COVID-19 Recession (2020)
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