Home Computers and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the NLSY97 and CPS.
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...
| Published in: | Economic Inquiry Vol. 48; no. 3; pp. 771 - 793 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
July 2010
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=510885672&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 510885672 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00952583 EIQ jtl: Economic Inquiry issn: 00952583 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: July 2010 vid: 48 iid: 3 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 510885672 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2009.00218.x ppf: 771 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: C – @attributes: type: P size: 3.8MB tig: atl: Home Computers and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the NLSY97 and CPS. aug: au: Fairlie, Robert W. Beltran, Daniel O. Das, Kuntal K. su: Computers Home (The concept) Computers in education Academic achievement Mathematical models High school graduates sug: subj: Computers Home (The concept) Computers in education Academic achievement Mathematical models High school graduates keyword: Computers -- Educational use Computers -- Home use ab: 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). pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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