The Impact of Broadband Penetration on Students' Performance: The Italian Case

In May 2020, the Italian Ministry of Education approved a plan for the expenditure of €400 million, financed by European funds, to bring optical fiber to Italian schools. Does an increase in connectivity in school improve students' performance? The existing literature regarding the impact of the Internet or new technologies in school shows ambiguous or even negative effects on students' academic achievement. This thesis aims to estimate the impact of broadband and ultrafast-broadband on students' performance. The main data source is a rich student-level dataset collecting verbal and math test scores for Italian eight-grade students, over the period 2013-2017. Students' performance is measured on a standardized test designed by INVALSI, the National Evaluation Institute for the School System. The INVALSI dataset is combined with a second panel collecting broadband penetration rates in every Italian Local Labour System (SLL). The estimate precision is improved by controlling for student-, family- and SLL-level variables.