TY - JOUR
T1 - Home computer use and the development of human capital
AU - Malamud, Ofer
AU - Pop-Eleches, Cristian
N1 - Funding Information:
∗Email [email protected] and [email protected]. We wish to thank Larry Katz and four anonymous referees for many useful suggestions. We also appreciate comments from Kerwin Charles, Janet Currie, Ray Fisman, Nora Gordon, Caroline Hoxby, Eleanor Kane, Jens Ludwig, Bruce Meyer, Doug Miller, Andrei Shleifer, Cristina Vatulescu, Wesley Yin, as well as seminar participants at the University of Chicago, Tel-Aviv University, and the NBER Economics of Education Program Meetings. We are grateful to Grigore Pop-Eleches who greatly contributed to the development and implementation of the project. Special thanks go to Ioana Veghes at Gallup Romania for managing the survey and the data collection effort. This project would not have been possible without financial support from the Spencer Foundation, the Population Research Center at NORC and the University of Chicago, ISERP at Columbia University, and the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy. All errors and opinions are our own. 1. A related literature examines the effect of school computer use on educational outcomes. See Angrist and Lavy (2002), Banerjee et al. (2007), Barrera-OsorioandLinden (2009),Barrow,Markman,andRouse (2010),Goolsbee and Guryan (2006), and Rouse and Krueger (2004). 2. Recent evidence on the effect of early exposure to television on test scores suggests that television does not lead to lower cognitive achievement ( Gentzkow andShapiro2008 ).Inrelatedstudies, Olken (2009)findsthattelevisionandradio reducessocialparticipationinIndonesiawhile JensenandOster (2009)showthat access to cable TV improves women’s status in India.
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - This paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of home computers on child and adolescent outcomes by exploiting a voucher program in Romania. Our main results indicate that home computers have both positive and negative effects on the development of human capital. Children who won a voucher to purchase a computer had significantly lower school grades but show improved computer skills. There is also some evidence that winning a voucher increased cognitive skills, as measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices. We do not find much evidence for an effect on non-cognitive outcomes. Parental rules regarding home work and computer use attenuate the effects of computer ownership, suggesting that parental monitoring and supervision may be important mediating factors.
AB - This paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of home computers on child and adolescent outcomes by exploiting a voucher program in Romania. Our main results indicate that home computers have both positive and negative effects on the development of human capital. Children who won a voucher to purchase a computer had significantly lower school grades but show improved computer skills. There is also some evidence that winning a voucher increased cognitive skills, as measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices. We do not find much evidence for an effect on non-cognitive outcomes. Parental rules regarding home work and computer use attenuate the effects of computer ownership, suggesting that parental monitoring and supervision may be important mediating factors.
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U2 - 10.1093/qje/qjr008
DO - 10.1093/qje/qjr008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80052959054
SN - 0033-5533
VL - 126
SP - 987
EP - 1027
JO - Quarterly Journal of Economics
JF - Quarterly Journal of Economics
IS - 2
ER -