The Long-Term Effects of Student Absence: Evidence from Sweden
Open accessAbstract
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.
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Both correlational and quasi-experimental studies find that student absences have negative effects on several academic and longer-run economic outcomes.
“Both correlational and quasi-experimental studies find that student absences have negative effects on several academic and longer-run economic outcomes (5–7).”
From Higher chronic absenteeism threatens academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic (2024) · cites this paper as [6]
Consistent school attendance is an educationally consequential behavior.
“More generally, consistent school attendance is an educationally consequential behavior.”
From Higher chronic absenteeism threatens academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic (2024) · cites this paper as [6]
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- Authors
- Cattan, S., Kamhöfer, D. A., Karlsson, M., & Nilsson, T.
- Affiliations
- Institute for Fiscal Studies (GB)
- IZA - Institute of Labor Economics (DE)
- Lund University, Sweden & Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm , Sweden
- Corresponding author
- Cattan, Sarah
- Venue
- The Economic Journal
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2022-11-12
- Volume
- 133
- Issue
- 650
- Pages
- 888-903
- ISSN
- 0013-0133 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-0297
- OpenAlex
- W4308833300
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 18.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Economic Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/T014334/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Youth Substance Use and School Attendance
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Keywords
- school absenteeism, long-term effects, academic performance, educational attainment, labor income, human capital accumulation, learning loss, labor market outcomes
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