Working Paper: NBER ID: w27555
Authors: Andrew Bacher-Hicks; Joshua Goodman; Christine Mulhern
Abstract: We use high frequency internet search data to study in real time how US households sought out online learning resources as schools closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. By April 2020, nationwide search intensity for both school- and parent-centered online learning resources had roughly doubled relative to pre-Covid levels. Areas of the country with higher income, better internet access and fewer rural schools saw substantially larger increases in search intensity. The pandemic will likely widen achievement gaps along these dimensions given schools’ and parents’ differing engagement with online resources to compensate for lost school-based learning time. Accounting for such differences and promoting more equitable access to online learning could improve the effectiveness of education policy responses to the pandemic. The public availability of internet search data allows our analyses to be updated when schools reopen and to be replicated in other countries.
Keywords: COVID-19; online learning; educational inequality; search data; socioeconomic status
JEL Codes: I20; I24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 school closures (I21) | household adaptation to online learning resources (D10) |
| COVID-19 school closures (I21) | nationwide search intensity for online learning resources (I21) |
| increase in search intensity (D83) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| mean household income (D19) | search intensity for online learning resources (C91) |
| broadband internet access (L96) | search intensity for online learning resources (C91) |
| socioeconomic gaps in search behavior (R23) | educational gaps (I24) |