Differential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on College Female and Male Students' Academic Performance

Abstract

We examine the disproportionate impact of the lockdown on the academic performance of college women and men due to the COVID-19 outbreak and study whether the inequality of students caused by the pandemic will shrink (expand or disappear) with the reopening of the school, leveraging the exogenous pandemic shock and the reopening of the campus. Using the difference-in-differences approach, we find that women were more suitable for online learning than men, with the former having the advantage of higher academic achievement than ever before. When students returned campus, the gender inequality caused by the pandemic seemingly has faded fast, and this effect remains absent a year after schools return to normal.