Short-Run Effects of Parental Job Loss on Children's Academic Achievement

42 Pages Posted: 9 Nov 2009 Last revised: 20 Apr 2023

See all articles by Ann Huff Stevens

Ann Huff Stevens

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Jessamyn Schaller

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance

Date Written: November 2009

Abstract

We study the relationship between parental job loss and children's academic achievement using data on job loss and grade retention from the 1996, 2001, and 2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. We find that a parental job loss increases the probability of children's grade retention by 0.8 percentage points, or around 15 percent. After conditioning on child fixed effects, there is no evidence of significantly increased grade retention prior to the job loss, suggesting a causal link between the parental employment shock and children's academic difficulties. These effects are concentrated among children whose parents have a high school education or less.

Suggested Citation

Stevens, Ann and Schaller, Jessamyn, Short-Run Effects of Parental Job Loss on Children's Academic Achievement (November 2009). NBER Working Paper No. w15480, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1501505

Ann Stevens (Contact Author)

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jessamyn Schaller

Claremont McKenna College - Robert Day School of Economics and Finance ( email )

500 E. Ninth St.
Claremont, CA 91711-6420
United States

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