IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reecon/v79y2025i2s1090944325000080.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Persistent impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on student outcomes in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Moulin, Léonard
  • Soncin, Mara

Abstract

The learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ outcomes is likely to have lasting effects, for which empirical evidence remains scarce.. Using a difference-in-differences design augmented by a triple difference estimator, we identify the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Italian students’ test scores in the two years following the outbreak. Our findings indicate a persistently negative effect on mathematics and reading scores for grade 5 and grade 8 students in 2021–22, two years after the pandemic began. The magnitude compared the cohort that attended the same grades the year before (2020–21) varies by subject and grade. Our analysis highlights the pandemic’s heterogeneous impact, especially in terms of geographical differences that have been exacerbated by the emergency.

Suggested Citation

  • Moulin, Léonard & Soncin, Mara, 2025. "Persistent impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on student outcomes in Italy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reecon:v:79:y:2025:i:2:s1090944325000080
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2025.101031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090944325000080
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rie.2025.101031?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Learning loss; Student achievement; Difference-in-differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    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:eee:reecon:v:79:y:2025:i:2:s1090944325000080. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622941 .

    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.