Concerns About Gender and Educational Inequality and Support For School Closures During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Survey Experiment

Speaker: Luna Bellani, Co-Authors: Ariane Bertogg , Nevena Kulic , Susanne Strauss Abstract: What drives support for school and kindergarten closures during a public health crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic? More specifically, do inequality concerns affect this support? To identify causal linkages between awareness of inequalities and support for school and kindergarten closures, we use a survey experiment with information treatment, in which we randomly assign information designed to prepare respondents to think about either education inequality, gender inequality, or both. Our findings show that concerns about education inequality and gender inequality are equally important drivers of support for preschool and primary school closures, while they do not seem to matter regarding secondary school closures. Keywords: Childcare Policy, COVID-19, School Closures, Survey Experiment, Information Treatment, Policy Support, Educational Inequality, Gender Inequality, Germany