Digital Divides? The Heterogeneous Effect of Broadband Internet Expansion on Adolescent Educational Outcomes
Digital Divides? The Heterogeneous Effect of Broadband Internet Expansion on Adolescent Educational Outcomes
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CRIS Scientific Seminar 2023-2024
Friday, December 15th 2023, 11:30 am
Sciences Po, Room K008 (1, St-Thomas-d'Aquin)
Digital Divides?
The Heterogeneous Effect of Broadband Internet Expansion on Adolescent Educational Outcomes
Pablo Gracia
Professor, Trinity College Dublin
The expansion of internet is likely to influence adolescent academic outcomes. Yet, how internet coverage impacts students’ educational performance remains poorly understood.
The present study addresses this major knowledge gap by using a quasi-experimental approach to causally assess how the gradual introduction of home broadband internet across Norwegian municipalities impacted the academic outcomes of graduates from lower-secondary schools (N = 103,796).
Analyses apply sibling fixed-effects models with micro-level registry data from adolescents aged 15 to 16, and compare differences by gender, social background, migrant status, and achievement levels.
Findings show that the introduction of broadband internet across municipalities led to moderate grade improvements, concentrated on boys in the subject areas of Mathematics, Arts and Crafts, Social Sciences, and Norwegian. The positive effect of broadband internet coverage on academic performance was three times larger for boys than for girls. For boys, broadband internet coverage led to strong grade improvements among students of lower-achievement levels and from disadvantaged socioeconomic background, and to moderate grade increases in boys of Norwegian background, while boys from higher-achieving groups and privileged socioeconomic backgrounds reduced their grades moderately.
By contrast, for girls, the expansion of broadband internet coverage worsened substantially the academic performance of those from disadvantaged socioeconomic background, but led to higher grades among girls of migrant origin.
These findings imply that broadband internet growth impacts adolescent educational performance, but differently across population groups, revealing a complex intersection across gender, social background, migrant status, and achievement levels.
The implications of the study are globally discussed by considering literature on digital divides, stratification, and adolescent academic outcomes.
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