The short-and long-run impacts of secondary school absences


Journal article


Jing Liu, Monica Lee, Seth Gershenson
Journal of Public Economics, vol. 199, Elsevier, 2021, p. 104441


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APA   Click to copy
Liu, J., Lee, M., & Gershenson, S. (2021). The short-and long-run impacts of secondary school absences. Journal of Public Economics, 199, 104441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104441


Chicago/Turabian   Click to copy
Liu, Jing, Monica Lee, and Seth Gershenson. “The Short-and Long-Run Impacts of Secondary School Absences.” Journal of Public Economics 199 (2021): 104441.


MLA   Click to copy
Liu, Jing, et al. “The Short-and Long-Run Impacts of Secondary School Absences.” Journal of Public Economics, vol. 199, Elsevier, 2021, p. 104441, doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104441.


BibTeX   Click to copy

@article{liu2021a,
  title = {The short-and long-run impacts of secondary school absences},
  year = {2021},
  journal = {Journal of Public Economics},
  pages = {104441},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  volume = {199},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104441},
  author = {Liu, Jing and Lee, Monica and Gershenson, Seth}
}

We provide novel evidence on the causal impacts of student absences in middle and high school on state test scores, course grades, and educational attainment using a rich administrative dataset that tracks the date and class period of each absence. We use two similar but distinct identification strategies that address potential endogeneity due to time-varying student-level shocks by exploiting within-student, between-subject variation in class-specific absences. We also leverage information on the timing of absences to show that absences that occur after the annual window for state standardized testing do not affect test scores, providing a further check of our identification strategy. Both approaches yield similar results. We find that absences in middle and high school harm contemporaneous student achievement and longer-term educational attainment: On average, missing 10 classes reduces math or English Language Arts test scores by 3–4% of a standard deviation and course grades by 17–18% of a standard deviation. 10 total absences across all subjects in 9th grade reduce both the probability of on-time graduation and ever enrolling in college by 2%. Learning loss due to school absences can have profound economic and social consequences. 


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