The Impact of Digital Skills on Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Performance Tests

Laura Pagani, Gianluca Argentin, Marco Gui and Luca Stanca

No 304, Working Papers from University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics

Abstract: Digital skills are increasingly important for labor market outcomes and social participation. Do they also matter for academic performance? This paper investigates the effects of digital literacy on educational outcomes by merging data from the Italian National Assessment in secondary schools with an original data set on performance tests of Internet skills for 10th grade students. Our identification strategy relies on a rich set of individual, family, school and classroom control variables that are not commonly available in previous studies. The findings indicate that, overall, Internet skills have a positive impact on academic achievement. This effect is stronger for students with low academic performance or low family background. It is also stronger for students in technical or vocational schools.

Keywords: Human capital; Academic achievement; Digital skills; Internet skills; Digital divide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33
Date: 2015-07, Revised 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-ict, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mib:wpaper:304

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