Parental job loss and child human capital in the short and long run : an analysis of workplace closures 1995-2000

We study the effects of parental job loss on children's health, educational achievement and labor market success as young adults. Past evidence shows mixed results which could be due to small sample sizes and that workers who suffer job loss are a selected group. Using Swedish register data, including more than 140,000 children whose parents were displaced due to workplace closures, and conditioning on a wide set of pretreatment outcomes of both parents and children, we find no effects of parental job loss on childhood health, school performance or outcomes as young adults although parents are negatively affected.