"Using matched mother-child data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I examine the impact of mothers' involuntary job loss on children's academic achievement. Single mothers' job displacement affects children's math and reading test scores negatively and statistically significantly in the short run. Displacement of married mothers has no impact on their children's test scores. The decline in income and a worsening of child's behavioral problems are two channels through which single mothers' job loss impacts test scores."

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