Events at CERGE-EI

Prof. Katrine V. Løken

University of Bergen, Norway

Authors: Katrine Holm Reiso, Kjell Erik Lommerud, and Katrine Vellesen Løken

Abstract: Work-encouraging welfare reforms have proven successful in getting single mothers to work and increase their earnings. Much less is known about the impact of such reforms on child development. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we estimate the effect of nationwide welfare reforms in Norway on children’s educational performance as adolescents. We find that the reforms had a small negative effect on children’s GPA and written exam grades the final year of junior high school. Our most robust finding is an increase of about one percentage point in the number of treated children that graduate with incomplete transcripts. In relative terms, this corresponds to about a doubling of treated children within this category. Given that graduating with low grades or incomplete transcripts are associated with early disability retirement, these students are at risk of exiting the labour force at a very young age.