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Education and COVID-19 excess mortality

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  • Bello, Piera
  • Rocco, Lorenzo

Abstract

We study the role of education during the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy. We compare the trends of mortality rates between municipalities with different shares of educated residents between 2012 and 2020, by means of a continuous event study model and controlling for many confounders. We find that education played a protective role, significantly reducing mortality rates, during the first wave of the pandemic (between March and May 2020), but not during the second wave (between October and December 2020). We tentatively interpret this finding as the outcome of the interplay between education and public health communication, whose coherence and consistency varied between the different stages of the epidemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Bello, Piera & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2021. "Education and COVID-19 excess mortality," GLO Discussion Paper Series 978, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:978
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; education; excess mortality; municipality; parallel trend; public health communication;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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