When a Strike Strikes Twice: Massive Student Mobilizations and Teenage Pregnancy in Chile

Abstract

We empirically study the impact of massive and sudden school closures on teenage pregnancy, following the 2011 nationwide student strike in Chile. Temporary high schools’ shutdown increases teenage pregnancies in 1.5% on average, while places in the highest tercile of strike exposure experienced an increase of 5%. This effect vanishes three quarters after the strike’s onset and is entirely driven by first-time mothers. The sudden and unexpected closure of schools allows interpreting these findings as mirroring an incapacitation effect of schools rather than human capital accumulation as a mechanism for the causal relationship between students’ strikes and teenage pregnancies.