Abstract
This study examines how school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic affected the reporting of child maltreatment in Mexico City. We use a rich panel dataset on incident-level crime reports and victim characteristics and exploit the differential effects between school-age children and older individuals. While financial and mental distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic may result in additional cases of child maltreatment, synthetic control and difference-in-differences estimations document an average reduction in child maltreatment reports of 29% and 30%, respectively, with larger reductions among females and in higher-poverty municipalities. These results highlight the important role education professionals in school settings play in the early detection and reporting of domestic violence against school-age children.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 4 |
| Journal | Latin American Economic Review |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Emily Pratt and Antonio Ruiz-Porras; seminar participants at Universidad del Norte, Universidad de Guadalajara, and IZA & Jacobs Center Workshop: Consequences of COVID-19 for Child and Youth Development; and colleagues at the Center for Institutional Studies, HSE, Moscow, for helpful feedback on earlier versions of this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A.C.. All rights reserved.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)