Equalizing Superstars: The Internet and the Democratization of Education

Daron Acemoglu, David Laibson and John List

No 19851, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Internet-based educational resources are proliferating rapidly. One concern associated with these (potentially transformative) technological changes is that they will be disequalizing - as many technologies of the last several decades have been - creating superstar teachers and a winner-take-all education system. These important concerns notwithstanding, we contend that a major impact of web-based educational technologies will be the democratization of education: educational resources will be more equally distributed, and lower-skilled teachers will benefit. At the root of our results is the observation that skilled lecturers can only exploit their comparative advantage if other teachers complement those lectures with face-to-face instruction. This complementarity will increase the quantity and quality of face-to-face teaching services, potentially increasing the marginal product and wages of lower-skill teachers.

JEL-codes: A20 I20 I24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-ict, nep-knm and nep-lma
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Published as Daron Acemoglu & David Laibson & John A. List, 2014. "Equalizing Superstars: The Internet and the Democratization of Education," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 523-27, May.

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