Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. We exploit a change in the rules governing ICT funding across different school districts of England to devise an Instrumental Variable strategy to identify the causal impact of ICT expenditure on pupil outcomes. The approach identifies the effect of being a 'winner' or a 'loser' in the new system of ICT funding allocation to schools. Our findings suggest a positive impact on primary school performance in English and Science, though not for Mathematics.

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1 July 2007

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The Economic Journal 117(552) , pp.1145-1167, 2007

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DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02070.x

https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/117/522/1145/5087780

This Journal article is published under the centre's Education programme.

This publication comes under the following theme: Determinants of school performance: Resources, pedagogy, workforce and peers