Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital

This paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of home computers on child and adolescent outcomes by exploiting a voucher pro-gram in Romania. Our main results indicate that home computers have both posi-tive 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 re-garding homework andcomputer use attenuate the effects of computer ownership, suggesting that parental monitoring andsupervision may be important mediating factors. JEL Codes: J24, I21. I