Digital infrastructure and cognitive ability of children

Digital technologies have become an integral part of most children’s lives, significantly influencing their development. This study takes the Broadband China Pilot Policy as a quasi-experiment, using the data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to analyze the effects of digital infrastructure on children’s cognitive ability. The extended two-way fixed effects estimator was employed to conduct the Staggered Difference-in-Differences estimation. The findings indicate that the average treatment effect of treatment group of “Broadband China” is significantly positive on children’s cognitive ability. Additionally, heterogeneities of gender and urban-rural were found: (1) The Broadband China policy had a significant positive impact on boys only; (2) The policy had a greater and more significant impact on the word test scores results of urban children; (3) The policy had a negative impact on the math test scores of urban children, while showing a positive impact on the math test scores of rural children. Finally, the paper makes the following recommendations: (1) Digital infrastructure development should be emphasized; (2) More emphasis should be placed on rural areas when building digital infrastructure; (3) Gender differences should be considered when formulating policies to help girls benefit from digital technologies.