.png){kind=icon}
.png){kind=icon}
Return
The effects of universal free lunch provision on student achievement: Evidence from South Korea
.png){kind=icon}
PRE
AI
Y
DOI：10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107161.png)
.png){kind=icon}
Original request for help.png){kind=icon}
Share.png){kind=icon}
Save
Abstract
En 中文
This paper examines the impact of the Universal Free Lunch Program (UFLP) on student achievement in South Korea. I leverage the staggered rollout of the UFLP across South Korean provinces and employ difference-in-differences strategies to estimate the causal effects of the program. Taking advantage of rich school-level data, I find that providing a free lunch to all students leads to improvements in academic achievement on average. I also test for heterogeneous effects and find that the benefits of the UFLP appear universally across different baseline participation rates in the means-tested lunch subsidy. After exploring numerous potential mechanisms, I find suggestive evidence that the nutritional channel is effectively absent. Instead, the findings suggest that increased household investment in education-evidenced by increased participation in and spending on academic after-school programs-is a key pathway underlying the achievement gains. These results suggest that parents redirected the saved lunch fees toward educational investment, highlighting the importance of labels attached to public assistance.
Keywords:
Subsidies
School lunch
Intrahousehold allocation
Academic achievement
Educational policy
Journal
J
IF:
2.3
Papers:
58
Citations:
1.4W
Organization
No organization information available
Cited Papers