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Abstract: We empirically study the impact of massive and sudden school closures on teenage pregnancy, following the 2011 nationwide student strike in Chile. Temporary high schools’ shutdown increases teenage pregnancies in 1.5% on average, while places in the highest
tercile of strike exposure experienced an increase of 5%. This effect vanishes three quarters after the strike’s onset and is entirely driven by first-time mothers. The sudden and unexpected closure of schools allows interpreting these findings as mirroring an incapacitation
effect of schools rather than human capital accumulation as a mechanism for the causal relationship between students’ strikes and teenage pregnancies.

Keywords: Teenage Pregnancy, Risky Behaviour, Student Protests, Incapacitation Effect
JEL Codes: J13, I12, I2, D17