Effect of Short-Term Exposure to Terror on Matriculation Outcomes with Long-Term Implications
| Received a Matriculation Certificate (1 = Yes, 0 = No) | Matriculation Composite Score | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | |
| Panel A | ||||||
| Average fatalities across all exams | –0.004 | –0.005 | –0.004 | –0.195* | –0.194* | –0.176 |
| (0.003) | (0.004) | (0.004) | (0.100) | (0.110) | (0.107) | |
| # Fatalities during spring semester | 0.00015 | –0.00014 | ||||
| (0.00018) | (0.00502) | |||||
| # Fatalities during academic year | –0.00003 | –0.00239 | ||||
| (0.00013) | (0.00366) | |||||
| Panel B | ||||||
| # Exposed exams with # fatalities > 5 | –0.005 | –0.006 | –0.004 | –0.475** | –0.470** | –0.444** |
| (0.007) | (0.007) | (0.007) | (0.197) | (0.212) | (0.208) | |
| # Fatalities during spring semester | 0.00011 | –0.00040 | ||||
| (0.00017) | (0.00492) | |||||
| # Fatalities during academic year | –0.00006 | –0.00259 | ||||
| (0.00013) | (0.00358) | |||||
| Fixed effects | ||||||
| School | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Year | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| # Exams | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| Schools | 420 | 420 | 420 | 420 | 420 | 420 |
| N (Students) | 248,033 | 248,033 | 248,033 | 248,033 | 248,033 | 248,033 |
Notes: Standard errors reported in parentheses are clustered at the school level. Each column in each panel in the table represents a separate regression. Each observation is a student. In Columns 1–3, the dependent variable is a dummy variable that is equal to one if the student received a matriculation certificate. In Columns 4–6, the dependent variable is the matriculation composite score. In Panel A the independent variable in the first row is the intensity of exposure, calculated as the average of any fatalities from attacks occurring in the student’s area during the four days before a matriculation exam across all exams taken by the student in the 12th grade. In Panel B the independent variable in the first row is the number of exams exposed to terror attacks causing more than five fatalities in the preceding four-day window. In each panel, the independent variable in the second row is total fatalities in the student’s area during the spring semester when the student was in the 12th grade, and the independent variable in the third row is total fatalities in the student’s area during the academic year when the student was in the 12th grade. All specifications include student controls (a gender dummy, both parents’ years of schooling, number of siblings, a born-in-Israel indicator, and a set of indicators for ethnicity), school fixed effects, year fixed effects, and fixed effects for the number of exams taken in the 12th grade. The sample comprises all 12th-grade students in the regular Jewish state system who took matriculation exams during the years 2001–2005. *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.