Gun violence and school achievement: Evidence from Sweden

Abstract

This paper examines how educational outcomes in grade six are affected by gun violence that occurs in proximity to primary schools in Sweden. With geo-referenced data on gun violence over the period between 2018 and 2022, the thesis geographically matches spatial data on 1,811 shootings with national test results in mathematics and background data on 2,304 Swedish primary schools. To identify the impact of gun violence, the main analysis relies on temporal and spatial variation in the occurrence of shootings. The empirical results consistently indicate a negative relationship between exposure to gun violence and students’ school outcomes. The negative relationship seems to be relatively short-term but could have negative consequences for students’ future life outcomes.