Summary
This May 2021 working paper examines school reopenings in Texas in fall 2020, combining district reopening dates and instructional formats with county-level COVID-19 cases and fatalities. Event-study estimates in the preferred specification attribute at least 43,000 additional cases and 800 fatalities to reopenings during the first two months. Evidence from SafeGraph mobility data suggests that increases in adults' time outside the home contributed to community spread.
Working-paper versions and access
- Read NBER working paper (PDF, May 2021)
- NBER working-paper record and abstract
- Later working-paper draft (PDF, August 2022; Virginia Tech seminar)
- University of Kentucky working-paper record (ISFE Working Paper 40)
This record's citation and summary describe the May 2021 NBER working paper. The August 2022 seminar draft is a distinct later version by the same four authors; it is linked separately. These are working-paper versions.
Citation
Charles J. Courtemanche, Anh H. Le, Aaron Yelowitz, and Ron Zimmer. "School Reopenings, Mobility, and COVID-19 Spread: Evidence from Texas." NBER Working Paper 28753, May 2021. https://doi.org/10.3386/w28753.