Education Under Fire: The Short-Run Effect of War on Academic Achievement

War can cause not just physical destruction, but also disrupt many other essential services, such as education. In this paper, I test whether exposure to war can affect the short-run academic performance of secondary school students. Employing the difference-in-difference approach, I show that the performance of Ukrainian students has deteriorated compared to students in the peer countries following the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion. Using unpredictability in the timing of air raid alerts, I find that these results are primarily driven by the lack of sleep, and stress that results from the air raid alerts on the night of the exam. On the other hand, other dimensions of exposure to war, such as physical proximity to the frontline, total number of air raid alerts or missile attacks experienced, as well as the school closures due to the war, have no effect on academic achievement.