Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: Correlation or Causal Relationship?

Stijn Baert, Sunčica Vujić (), Simon Amez, Matteo Claeskens, Thomas Daman, Arno Maeckelberghe, Eddy Omey and Lieven De Marez

No 384, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: After a decade of correlational research, this study attempts to measure the causal impact of (general) smartphone use on educational performance. To this end, we merge survey data on general smartphone use, exogenous predictors of this use, and other drivers of academic success with the exam scores of first-year students at two Belgian universities. The resulting data are analysed with instrumental variable estimation techniques. A one-standard-deviation increase in daily smartphone use yields a decrease in average exam scores of about one point (out of 20). When relying on ordinary least squares estimations, the magnitude of this effect is substantially underestimated. The negative association between smartphone use and exam results is more outspoken for students (i) with highly educated fathers, (ii) with divorced parents and (iii) who are in good health. Policy-makers should at least invest in information and awareness campaigns of teachers and parents to highlight this trade-off between smartphone use and academic performance.

Keywords: smartphone use; academic performance; causality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/202026/1/GLO-DP-0384.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: Correlation or Causal Relationship? (2020)
Working Paper: SMARTPHONE USE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: CORRELATION OR CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP? (2019)
Working Paper: Smartphone Use and Academic Performance: Correlation or Causal Relationship? (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

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

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:384

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().