The Effects of Computers and Acquired Skills on Earnings, Employment and College Enrollment: Evidence from a Field Experiment and California UI Earnings Records

Robert Fairlie and Peter Riley Bahr

No 24276, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper provides the first evidence on the earnings, employment and college enrollment effects of computers and acquired skills from a randomized controlled trial providing computers to entering college students. We matched confidential administrative data from California Employment Development Department (EDD)/Unemployment Insurance (UI) system earnings records, the California Community College system, and the National Student Clearinghouse to all study participants for seven years after the random provision of computers. The experiment does not provide evidence that computer skills have short- or medium-run effects on earnings. These null effects are found along both the extensive and intensive margins of earnings (although the estimates are not precise). We also do not find evidence of positive or negative effects on college enrollment. A non-experimental analysis of CPS data reveals large, positive and statistically significant relationships between home computers, and earnings, employment and college enrollment, raising concerns about selection bias in non-experimental studies.

JEL-codes: I23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-exp, nep-ias and nep-ict
Note: ED
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Robert W. Fairlie & Peter Riley Bahr, 2018. "The effects of computers and acquired skills on earnings, employment and college enrollment: Evidence from a field experiment and California UI earnings records," Economics of Education Review, vol 63, pages 51-63.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w24276.pdf (application/pdf)

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24276

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w24276

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().