Pandemics and intergenerational mobility in education: Evidence from the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the 2003 SARS epidemic on student academic and labour market outcomes. Using data from the 2010 Chinese census and variations in SARS cases across cities, we conduct a difference-in-differences analysis. Our findings indicate that among those who took the college entrance exam in 2003 during the epidemic, SARS hurts the performance of students from less educated families but benefits students from higher educated families, which increases educational inequality and lowers intergenerational mobility in education. This effect is stronger for female students and for admission to four-year bachelor programmes. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that SARS significantly increases the likelihood of children from more educated families having more prestigious jobs and earning higher incomes in the medium run. The mechanism analysis reveals that the adverse effect of SARS is not significant in more educated families because better-educated mothers increase their engagement in children's academic activities during the epidemic, which may make up for education loss during the period.