Enrico Lippo (University of Milan)
Massimiliano Bratti and Filippo Passerini
This paper explores whether femicides influence students’ higher education choices in Italy. Using detailed administrative data from 2010 to 2022 and a newly collected dataset on femicide events, we study the effects on both university mobility and field-of-study choice. Exploiting variation in the timing and location of femicides, we apply staggered DiD and triple-difference strategies. Preliminary results suggest that femicides increase female enrollment in more female-concentrated fields and trigger greater student mobility—especially among high-achieving students and those from technical or vocational tracks. Male students also appear to respond, hinting at peer effects. For lyceum graduates, however, femicides are linked to reduced local enrollment without increased mobility.