COVID and the Economic Importance of In-Person K-12 Schooling / David A. Green, Ali Karimirad, Gaëlle Simard-Duplain, Henry E. Siu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Green, David A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Karimirad, Ali.

Simard-Duplain, Gaëlle.

Siu, Henry E.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28200.

NBER working paper series no. w28200

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

The extent to which K-12 schools should remain open is at the forefront of discussions on long-term pandemic management. In this context, there has been little mention of the immediate importance of K-12 schooling for the rest of the economy. Eliminating in-person schooling reduces the amount of labour time parents of school-aged children have available to work, and therefore reduces income to those workers and the economy as a whole. We discuss two measures of economic importance, and how they can be modified to better reflect the vital role played by K-12 education. The first is its size, as captured by the fraction of GDP that is produced by that sector. The second is its centrality, reflecting how essential a sector is to the network of economic activity. Using data from Canada's Census of Population and Symmetric Input-Output Tables, we show how accounting for this role dramatically increases the importance of K-12 schooling.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2020.