Killing Our Future: The Long-Term and Intergenerational Effects of School Shootings on Labor-Market Outcomes

In the past 50 years, almost one million U.S. students have been present on school grounds during a shooting. This paper examines the long-term and intergenerational effects of school shootings on earnings, educational attainment, and mobility. I find that exposure to a school shooting decreases survivors’ hourly wage by 20:8% and these effects persist over their lifetime. Furthermore, I show that the effect of school shootings lasts even beyond the initially treated and has detrimental effects on their children. I find that having shooting-exposed parents decreases children’s hourly wage by 18:8%