Home broadband and human capital formation

Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa, Montalbán, José and Weinhardt, Felix (2024) Home broadband and human capital formation. CEP Discussion Papers (CEPDP1979). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

Using administrative data, we estimate the effect of home broadband speed on student-level value-added test scores. Our headline estimate relies on jumps in connection quality between close neighbours that occur across thousands of invisible telephone exchange station catchment-area boundaries. We find that increasing speed by 1 Mbit/s increases test scores by 1.37 percentile ranks, equivalent to 5% of a standard deviation. School-level factors or broadband take-up cannot explain this. Instead, the positive effects are concentrated among high-ability and non-free-school-meal eligible students and result from more education-oriented internet use. Differences in ICT quality can thus lead to increasing education inequalities.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion...
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I21 - Analysis of Education I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I28 - Government Policy D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2025 17:18
Last Modified:	19 Feb 2025 17:24
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/126832

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