Question 3: To what extent will school closures increase gender inequality due to unequal gender distribution of the burden of school closures?
Answer:
To a small degree but persistently
Confidence level:
Not confident
Comment:
The additional childcare burden associated with school closures is likely to have fallen more heavily on women, and may lead to labour force withdrawal or extended periods of unemployment, with a permanent impact on earning potential. This may be partially offset by a change in workplace attitudes towards working from home.
Question 2: To what extent will school closures increase inequality in human capital development?
Answer:
By a large amount and persistently
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
At all levels of education, it will be difficult to bridge the gap that has developed between children who have had strong homeschooling support, access to home computers and active online schooling, and children who have not had these benefits.
Question 1:What damage will school closures have on economic growth over a 10-15 year horizon?
Answer:
Moderate
Confidence level:
Not confident
Comment:
There is likely to be some permanent impact on the accumulation of human capital as a result of school closures, especially among younger pupils. What may have an even bigger impact on economic growth is labour force withdrawal or extended periods of unemployment among parents of young children who have been unable to work for childcare reasons while children are not in school.
About the CFM Surveys
The CFM surveys informs the public about the views held by prominent economists based in Europe on important macroeconomic and public policy questions. Some surveys focus specifically on the UK economy (as the CFM is a UK research centre), but surveys can in principle focus on any macroeconomic question for any region. The surveys shed light on the extent to which there is agreement or disagreement among these experts. An important motivation for the survey is to give a more comprehensive overview of the beliefs held by economists and in particular to include the views of those economists whose opinions are not frequently heard in public debates.
Questions mainly focus on macroeconomic and public policy topics. Although there are some questions that focus specifically on the UK economy, the setup of the survey is much broader and considers questions related to other countries/regions and also considers questions not tied to a specific economy.
The surveys are done in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
The Economic Cost of School Closures
Question 3: To what extent will school closures increase gender inequality due to unequal gender distribution of the burden of school closures?
Question 2: To what extent will school closures increase inequality in human capital development?
Question 1:What damage will school closures have on economic growth over a 10-15 year horizon?