Evaluating the Effect of School Closures on Societal Transmission of Covid-19: Evidence from Lower Secondary School Closures in Sweden
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Date
2022-06-30
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Abstract
In lightoftheCovid-19pandemic,oneofthemostcommoninterventions
used bycountrieswastoshutdownschoolsinthehopeofmitigatingvirus
transmission. However,theeffectivenessofschoolclosuresstilllacks
consensus intheliteratureduetotheseeminglydifficulttaskofestimating
the causaleffectofclosingschools.Thispapercontributestotheliterature
byprovidingbothempiricalevidenceoftheeffectofschoolclosuresand
methodologicalguidancetoisolatetheeffectofschoolclosures.Weexploit
variationsinschoolclosuresacrossmunicipalitiesbyutilizinganovel
dataset onSwedishlowersecondaryschoolclosurestoidentifythecausal
effect usingasyntheticcontrolmethod.Wefindevidencethatclosing
schoolshadasmallandsignificanteffectonthemunicipaltransmission
of Covid-19.Inaddition,weshowthatonlyholdingallstudentsathome
simultaneouslyyieldedmitigatingeffectsonthetransmission.
Description
MSc in Economics
Keywords
Covid-19, Sweden, school closures, synthetic control method