IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v58y2024i1d10.1186_s12651-024-00371-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The COVID-19 pandemic: a threat to higher education? Evidence from a large university in Northern Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Marina Bonaccolto-Töpfer

    (Kore University of Enna)

  • Carolina Castagnetti

    (University of Pavia)

Abstract

Transition to online teaching during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to various concerns about educational quality. The study investigates the consequences of this transition on student performance for a prominent university in Northern Italy. Comprehensive administrative data allows us to monitor students’ performance and to have detailed socioeconomic information about them. Using a difference-in-differences design with lecturer fixed effects, we exploit the unique timing of the lockdown that fell together with the start of the summer term in 2020. We find no marked effects on students’ average grades in higher education in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown.

Suggested Citation

  • Marina Bonaccolto-Töpfer & Carolina Castagnetti, 2024. "The COVID-19 pandemic: a threat to higher education? Evidence from a large university in Northern Italy," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 58(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:58:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-024-00371-0
    DOI: 10.1186/s12651-024-00371-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s12651-024-00371-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s12651-024-00371-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2020. "Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Ivan A. Canay, 2011. "A simple approach to quantile regression for panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 14(3), pages 368-386, October.
    3. Adams-Prassl, A. & Boneva, T. & Golin, M & Rauh, C., 2020. "Inequality in the Impact of the Coronavirus Shock: New Survey Evidence for the UK," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2023, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Agostinelli, Francesco & Doepke, Matthias & Sorrenti, Giuseppe & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2022. "When the great equalizer shuts down: Schools, peers, and parents in pandemic times," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    5. Aucejo, Esteban M. & French, Jacob & Ugalde Araya, Maria Paola & Zafar, Basit, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations: Evidence from a survey," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    6. Per Engzell & Arun Frey & Mark D. Verhagen, 2021. "Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(17), pages 2022376118-, April.
    7. George Bulman & Robert Fairlie, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Community College Enrollment and Student Success: Evidence from California Administrative Data," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 17(4), pages 745-764, Fall.
    8. Esteban M. Aucejo & Jane Cooley Fruehwirth & Sean Kelly & Zachary Mozenter, 2022. "Teachers and the Gender Gap in Reading Achievement," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(3), pages 372-403.
    9. Bargain, Olivier B. & Etienne, Audrey & Melly, Blaise, 2018. "Public Sector Wage Gaps over the Long-Run: Evidence from Panel Administrative Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11924, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Binelli, Chiara & Comi, Simona & Meschi, Elena & Pagani, Laura, 2024. "Every cloud has a silver lining: The role of study time and class recordings on university students’ performance during COVID-19," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 305-328.
    2. Nicola Fuchs-Schünde & Dirk Krueger & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2022. "The Long-Term Distributional and Welfare Effects of Covid-19 School Closures," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(645), pages 1647-1683.
    3. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina, 2021. "The COVID-19 pandemic: A threat to higher education?," Discussion Papers 117, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    4. Guido Neidhöfer & Nora Lustig & Mariano Tommasi, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission of lockdown consequences: prognosis of the longer-run persistence of COVID-19 in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 571-598, September.
    5. Major, Lee Elliott & Eyles, Andrew & Machin, Stephen, 2021. "Unequal learning and labour market losses in the crisis: consequences for social mobility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114413, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Belmonte, A & Pickard, H, 2022. "Safe at Last? LATE Effects of a Mass Immunization Campaign on Households’ Economic Insecurity," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 604, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    7. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln & Dirk Krueger & André Kurmann & Etienne Lalé & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2023. "The Fiscal and Welfare Effects of Policy Responses to the Covid-19 School Closures," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(1), pages 35-98, March.
    8. Ayllón, Sara, 2022. "Online teaching and gender bias," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. David R. Agrawal & Aline Bütikofer, 2022. "Public finance in the era of the COVID-19 crisis," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(6), pages 1349-1372, December.
    10. Hupkau, Claudia & Ruiz-Valenzuela, Jenifer & Isphording, Ingo E. & Machin, Stephen, 2023. "Labour Market Shocks and Parental Investments during the Covid-19 Pandemic," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Bratti, Massimiliano & Lippo, Enrico, 2022. "COVID-19 and the Gender Gap in University Student Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 15456, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Shinsuke Asakawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Impact of Temporary School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Academic Achievement of Elementary School Students," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 21-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    13. Ahn, Kunwon & Lee, Jun Yeong & Winters, John V., 2020. "Employment Opportunities and High School Completion during the COVID-19 Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 13802, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Natalia Danzer & Sebastian Garcia-Torres & Max Friedrich Steinhardt & Luca Stella, 2024. "Women in political power and school closure during COVID times," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 39(120), pages 765-810.
    15. Liang, Xiao & Rozelle, Scott & Yi, Hongmei, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on employment and income of vocational graduates in China: Evidence from surveys in January and July 2020," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Giuseppe Moscelli & Melisa Sayli & Marco Mello & Alberto Vesperoni, 2025. "Staff engagement, co‐workers' complementarity and employee retention: evidence from English NHS hospitals," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(365), pages 42-83, January.
    17. Elsner, Benjamin & Jindal, Manvi & Mascherini, Massimiliano & Nivakoski, Sanna, 2024. "Gender Gaps in Time Use: Pan-European Evidence from School Closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IZA Discussion Papers 17151, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Ilie, S. & Maragkou, K., 2024. "University admissions during a pandemic," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2458, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Pertold-Gebicka, Barbara, 2024. "Medium-run effects of COVID-19 induced distant learning on students’ academic performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Foliano, Francesca & Tonei, Valentina & Sevilla, Almudena, 2024. "Social restrictions, leisure and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Online teaching; COVID-19 pandemic; Difference-in-differences; Higher education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:58:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s12651-024-00371-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.