The Impact of School Renovation and Modernization on Students’ Academic Outcomes

This paper looks into a school renovation and modernization program undergone in Portugal to assess the impact of modernized school infrastructure on students’ academic outcomes. It uses a difference-­‐in-­‐differences approach and a fixed-­‐effects approach and estimates a negative impact of the program on student grades both in the period in which schools are experiencing renovation works as well as in the years shortly after these works are finished and the modernized schools reopen to their normal academic functioning.