The Long-Term Effects of Student Absence: Evidence from Sweden

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cattan, Sarah; Kamhoefer, Daniel A.; Karlsson, Martin; Nilsson, Therese
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf; University of Duisburg Essen; Lund University; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueac078
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 888-903
• 关键词: school year; performance; earnings; length; entry

摘要

Despite the relatively uncontested importance of promoting school attendance in the policy arena, little evidence exists on the causal effect of school absence on long-run outcomes. We address this question by combining historical and administrative records for cohorts of Swedish individuals born in the 1930s. We find that elementary school absence significantly reduces contemporaneous academic performance, final educational attainment and labour income throughout the life cycle. The findings are consistent with a dynamic model of human capital formation, whereby absence causes small immediate learning losses, which cumulate to larger human capital losses over time and lead to worse labour market performance.