Shut Down Schools, Knock Down the Virus?

• In Event: The Politics of COVID-19 Response

Brief Overview

Our study aims to estimate the causal effects of school closures on the number of coronavirus infections. We apply matching methods to municipal-level data in Japan. We find that school closures in March did not reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

Authors

• Kentaro Fukumoto, Gakushuin University

• Charles McClean, Harvard University

• Kuninori Nakagawa, Shizuoka University