14.30h – HYBRID – SALA DE GRAUS

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the effect of Low Emission Zones (LEZs) on traffic. LEZs are areas in which access is restricted for the most polluting vehicles. They have been found to be effective in reducing pollution, while the expected effect on traffic is not clear. Using high-frequency granular data on traffic for the city of Madrid, I analyse whether LEZ schemes are effective in reducing traffic within the area of implementation and whether they generate a displacement effect. Taking advantage of the exogeneity of the implementation timing, I develop a pre/post analysis based on time. Results suggest a reduction in traffic inside the restricted area and a displacement to all the other areas of the city. I find a switch to public transport for commutes directed towards the restricted area and rerouting of trips for destinations outside Madrid Central to be two of the possible mechanisms explaining these results. The reduction in transit inside the restricted area gradually decreases over time and disappears after 7 months. This is consistent with the renewal of the vehicles’ fleet with unrestricted and cleaner vehicles generated by the policy.

We use census data on external assessments in primary and secondary school in the Basque Country (Spain) to estimate learning losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2021, one year after school closures, which lasted from March to June 2020. Differences-in-differences with student and school-by-grade fixed effects show an average learning loss of 0.045 standard deviations, an effect which is smaller than short-run effects estimated by previous papers, and estimated after 6 months of one of the most successful school reopening campaigns among OECD countries. The effect is larger in Mathematics, moderate in Basque language, and none in Spanish language. Controlling for socioeconomic differences, learning losses are especially large in public schools, and also in private schools with a high percentage of low-performing students. On the other hand, we find a regression to the mean within schools, possibly due to a compressed curriculum during the whole period. Finally, we show that students’ with higher learning losses self-report significantly worse levels of socio-emotional well- being due to the pandemic.

Lecturers: Nathaniel Baum-Snow (University of Toronto), Victor Couture (University of British Columbia), Jessie Handbury (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), Giacomo Ponzetto (CREI & Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Diego Puga (CEMFI), Daniel Sturm (London School of Economics)

14.30h – HYBRID – SALA DE GRAUS

The II Workshop on Public Policies: Education and Health will take place in Barcelona on June 9 & 10, 2022. The workshop aims at exploring both the interactions between education and health as well as issues related to the impact of shocks (broadly defined) on the provision of education and health care.