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Therese Nilsson. Photo.

Therese Nilsson

Professor

Therese Nilsson. Photo.

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

Author

  • Sarah Cattan
  • Daniel Kamhöfer
  • Martin Karlsson
  • Therese Nilsson

Summary, in English

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.

Department/s

  • Centre for Economic Demography
  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2023

Language

English

Pages

888-903

Publication/Series

Economic Journal

Volume

133

Issue

650

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Economic History

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1468-0297