1887

OECD Economics Department Working Papers

Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.

The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.

English, French

Quantifying the macroeconomic impact of COVID-19-related school closures through the human capital channel

This paper uses a new measure of human capital, which distinguishes both quality and quantity components, to estimate the long-term effect of the COVID-19-related school closures on aggregate productivity through the human capital channel. Productivity losses build up over time and are estimated to range between 0.4% and 2.1% after 45 years, for 12 weeks and 2 years of school closure, respectively. These results appear to be broadly consistent with earlier findings in the literature. Two opposing effects might influence these estimates. Online teaching would lower economic costs while learning losses in tertiary education (not considered here) would inflate them. Policies aimed at improving the quality of education and adult training will be needed to offset or, at least, alleviate the impact of the pandemic on human capital.

English

Keywords: COVID-19, OECD countries, human capital, PIAAC, PISA, productivity, education policies
JEL: I28: Health, Education, and Welfare / Education and Research Institutions / Education: Government Policy; E24: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics / Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy / Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity; I26: Health, Education, and Welfare / Education and Research Institutions / Returns to Education; I20: Health, Education, and Welfare / Education and Research Institutions / Education and Research Institutions: General; I25: Health, Education, and Welfare / Education and Research Institutions / Education and Economic Development; I19: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Health: Other
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