HOME COMPUTERS AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM THE NLSY97 and CPS* |
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| Authors: | ROBERT W FAIRLIE DANIEL O BELTRAN KUNTAL K DAS |
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| Institution: | 1. Fairlie: Professor, Department of Economics, Engineering 2 Building, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Phone 1‐831‐459‐3332, Fax 1‐831‐459‐5077, E‐mail rfairlie@ucsc.edu;2. Beltran: Economist, Division of International Finance, 20th and C St. NW, Mail Stop #42, Washington, DC 20551. Phone 1‐202‐452‐2244, Fax 1‐202‐872‐4926, E‐mail Daniel.O.Beltran@frb.gov;3. Das: Lecturer in Economics, Department of Economics, Engineering 2 Building, University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Phone 1‐831‐459‐1343, Fax 1‐831‐459‐5077, E‐mail kkdas@ucsc.edu;4. This research was funded by the William T. Grant Foundation and the Community Technology Foundation of California. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the William T. Grant Foundation, the Community Technology Foundation of California, or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We thank seminar participants at Stanford University, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, University of Connecticut, University of Arizona, University of Melbourne, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the 2007 IZA/SOLE Transatlantic Meetings, W.T. Grant Foundation Economics and Technology workshop, CJTC workshop, the 2006 UC Regents Meeting at the UCSC Silicon Valley Center, and the 2007 Society of Labor Economists Meetings for helpful comments and suggestions. |
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| Abstract: | Although computers are universal in the classroom, nearly 20 million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. Surprisingly, only a few previous studies explore the role of home computers in the educational process. Home computers might be very useful for completing school assignments, but they might also represent a distraction for teenagers. We use several identification strategies and panel data from the two main U.S. data sets that include recent information on computer ownership among children—the 2000–2003 Current Population Survey (CPS) Computer and Internet Use Supplements matched to the CPS basic monthly files and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)—to explore the causal relationship between computer ownership and high school graduation and other educational outcomes. Teenagers who have access to home computers are 6–8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than teenagers who do not have home computers after controlling for individual, parental, and family characteristics. We generally find evidence of positive relationships between home computers and educational outcomes using several identification strategies, including controlling for typically unobservable home environment and extracurricular activities in the NLSY97, fixed effects models, instrumental variables, and including future computer ownership and falsification tests. Home computers may increase high school graduation by reducing nonproductive activities, such as truancy and crime, among children in addition to making it easier to complete school assignments (JEL I2). |
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