Television, Cognitive Ability, and High School Completion

Øystein Hernæs, Simen Markussen and Knut Røed (knut.roed@frisch.uio.no)

No 9645, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We exploit supply-driven heterogeneity in the expansion of cable television across Norwegian municipalities to identify developmental effects of commercial television exposure during childhood. We find that higher exposure to commercial television reduces cognitive ability and high school graduation rates for young men. The effects are largest for exposure during pre-school and elementary school age. We find no effect on high school completion for women, suggesting availability of non-educational media content as a factor in the widening educational gender gap. Based on time-use data, we show that a possible explanation is that television-watching crowds out reading more for boys than girls.

Keywords: human capital; media; education gender gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J24 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-edu, nep-lma, nep-neu and nep-ure
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Published - revised version published in: Journal of Human Resources, 2019, 54 (2), 371-400

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Journal Article: Television, Cognitive Ability, and High School Completion (2019)
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