TY - JOUR AU - Beuermann,Diether W. AU - Cristia,Julian P. AU - Cruz-Aguayo,Yyannu AU - Cueto,Santiago AU - Malamud,Ofer TI - Home Computers and Child Outcomes: Short-Term Impacts from a Randomized Experiment in Peru JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 18818 PY - 2013 Y2 - February 2013 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18818 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18818.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Diether Beuermann Inter-American Development Bank 1300 New York Ave, NW Washington, DC 20577 E-Mail: dietherbe@iadb.org Julian Cristia Inter-American Development Bank 1300 New York Ave, NW Washington, DC 20577 E-Mail: jcristia@iadb.org Yyannu Cruz Aguayo Inter-American Development Bank 1300 New York Ave NW Washington, DC 20577 E-Mail: yyannuc@iadb.org Santiago Cueto GRADE Av. Almirante Grau #915 Barranco, Lima 4 Perú E-Mail: scueto@grade.org.pe Ofer Malamud Harris School of Public Policy Studies University of Chicago 1155 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Tel: 773/702-3382 Fax: 773/702-0926 E-Mail: malamud@uchicago.edu AB - This paper presents results from a randomized control trial in which approximately 1,000 OLPC XO laptops were provided for home use to children attending primary schools in Lima, Peru. The intervention increased access and use of home computers, with some substitution away from computer use outside the home. Beneficiaries were more likely to complete domestic chores but less likely to read books. Treatment children scored almost one standard deviation higher in a test of XO proficiency, though there were no effects on objective and self-reported skills for using a Windows-based PC and Internet. There were positive impacts on the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test among children who did not have a home computer before the intervention, but no significant effects for the sample as a whole. Finally, there was little evidence for spillovers within schools, although close friends and classmates of laptop recipients did exhibit higher proficiency with the XO computer. ER -