Working Paper: NBER ID: w15480
Authors: Ann Huff Stevens; Jessamyn Schaller
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.
Keywords: Parental Job Loss; Children's Academic Achievement; Grade Retention; Survey of Income and Program Participation
JEL Codes: J62
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Parental job loss (J12) | Children's grade retention (I21) |
| Parental job loss (J12) | Children's academic outcomes (I21) |
| Children's grade retention (I21) | Children's academic outcomes (I21) |
| Parental job loss (J12) | Increased grade retention (I21) |
| Parental job loss (J12) | Academic difficulties (I23) |