Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Dirk Krueger, Alexander Ludwig, Irina Popova
School closures are among the most controversial policies used to fight the pandemic, as their costs loom large. Prolonged teaching disruptions affect not only children’s learning outcomes but also their psychological and emotional development, with children from low socio-economic backgrounds particularly hurt (Engzell et al. 2020, Grenewig et al. 2020). School closures are also detrimental for the careers of parents who take on more educational responsibilities and have to reduce the number of hours worked (Fuchs-Schündeln et al. 2020). Since women typically shoulder most of the childcare responsibilities, school closures may also widen the gender wage gap (Alon et al. 2020).