Ill communication: technology, distraction & studentperformance

Beland, Louis-Philippe and Murphy, Richard (2015) Ill communication: technology, distraction & studentperformance. CEP Discussion Papers (CEPDP1350). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of schools banning mobile phones on student test scores. By surveying schools in four English cities regarding their mobile phone policies and combining it with administrative data, we find that student performance in high stakes exams significantly increases post ban. We use a difference in differences (DID) strategy, exploiting variations in schools’ autonomous decisions to ban these devices, conditioning on a range of student characteristics and prior achievement. Our results indicate that these increases in performance are driven by the lowestachieving students. This suggests that restricting mobile phone use can be a low-cost policy to reduce educational inequalities.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/series.asp?...
Additional Information:	©2015 The Authors
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I21 - Analysis of Education I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I28 - Government Policy 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 O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
Date Deposited:	30 Jun 2015 15:12
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 20:31
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/62574

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