The short run and long run effects of Covid-19 on children’s human capital and labor.

The Covid-19 crisis is likely to bring to the surface weaknesses in the education system of developing countries, with the poorest sections of the population being disproportionately adversely affected. With the social-distancing measures having closed down public schools and the slowdown of the economy having pushed more and more households into poverty, children may be relied upon more for work to guarantee the survival of the household in the short-run. While the short-term shock to the education of children is already damaging, if it turns into a long-term displacement of schooling for work then it will have devastating consequences for a child’s future well-being. There is, therefore, an urgent need to investigate both the potential short-term and long-term effects on education participation due to the Covid-19 crisis in order to weigh up their potential relative negative effects. The aim of the project is to study how the shutdown of public schools to combat the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Pakistan (Punjab) affects the human capital accumulation process of children in low-income households. The focus is on how the short-term negative impacts on education due to limited resources for homeschooling and an increased requirement for work activity from children affects the longterm school participation and labor supply of disadvantaged children.