Frischseminar: Sofie Sara Abrahamsson

Abstract: How smartphone usage affects learning and well-being among children and teenagers is a concern for schools, parents, and policymakers. However, causal evidence of the effect that new technology, such as smartphones, has on student outcomes remains scarce. This paper studies the effect of banning smartphones from the classroom on students' educational outcomes and incidents of bullying in Norwegian middle schools. Combining detailed administrative data with survey data on middle schools' smartphone policies, together with an event-study design, I show that banning smartphones significantly increases girls' average grades, improves their test scores in mathematics, increases their likelihood of attending an academic high school track, and decreases incidents of bullying. Hence, banning smartphones from school could potentially be a low-cost policy tool to improve educational outcomes and reduce bullying.