Review of Economic Studies Vol. 93 No. 1 2026

Trauma at School: The Impacts of Shootings on Students’ Human Capital and Economic Outcomes

Marika Cabral¹; Bokyung Kim²; Maya Rossin-Slater³; Molly Schnell⁴; Hannes Schwandt⁵

¹ Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin & NBER , · ² Department of Economics, University of Connecticut , · ³ Department of Health Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine & NBER , · ⁴ Department of Economics, Northwestern University; NBER · ⁵ School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University & NBER ,

Abstract

We examine how shootings at schools—an increasingly common form of gun violence in the States—impact the educational and economic trajectories of students. Using linked schooling and labor market data in Texas from 1992 to 2018, we compare within-student and across-cohort changes in outcomes following a shooting to those experienced by students at matched control schools. We find that school shootings increase absenteeism and grade repetition, reduce high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion; and reduce employment and earnings at ages 24–26 years. We further find school-level increases in the number of leadership staff and reductions in retention among teachers and teaching support staff in the years following a shooting. The adverse impacts of shootings span student characteristics, suggesting that the economic costs of school shootings are universal.

DOI

10.1093/restud/rdaf027

Volume

93

Issue

1

Pages

327-365

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref

Cite

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