« Previous |
141 - 143 of 143
|
Next »
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
142. Home Computers and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the NLSY97 and CPS
- Author:
- Daniel O. Beltran, Kuntal K Das, and Robert W. Fairlie
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- Although computers are universal in the classroom, nearly twenty million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. Surprisingly, only a few previous studies explore the role of home computers in the educational process. Home computers might be very useful for completing school assignments, but they might also represent a distraction for teenagers. We use several identification strategies and panel data from the two main U.S. datasets that include recent information on computer ownership among children -- the 2000-2003 CPS Computer and Internet Use Supplements (CIUS) matched to the CPS Basic Monthly Files and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 -- to explore the causal relationship between computer ownership and high school graduation and other educational outcomes. Teenagers who have access to home computers are 6 to 8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school than teenagers who do not have home computers after controlling for individual, parental, and family characteristics. We generally find evidence of positive relationships between home computers and educational outcomes using several identification strategies, including controlling for typically unobservable home environment and extracurricular activities in the NLSY97, fixed effects models, instrumental variables, and including future computer ownership and falsification tests. Home computers may increase high school graduation by reducing non-productive activities, such as truancy and crime, among children in addition to making it easier to complete school assignments.
- Topic:
- Crime, Education, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
143. Can Scientific Codes of Conduct Deter Bioweapons?
- Author:
- Jeanne Guillemin
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- At least since the First World War, when the German army sabotaged the Allies’ pack animals with anthrax and glanders, worldwide concern about biological weapons has focused on how to improve legal restraints against biological weapons (BW). Over these same years, the major powers have vacillated in their willing- ness to promote international treaties and laws against BW programs. At the end of the Cold War, hopes were high for a global consensus to strengthen the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), making it a standing organization comparable to that of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and an expanded man- date to ensure compliance. Instead, in the name of national security, the United States has recently promoted an emphasis on voluntary measures. One of these, the international adoption of biosecurity codes of conduct, puts the burden on elite scientists to solve a prob- lem of weapons proliferation that can be better addressed by effec- tive legal restraints.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Science and Technology, Military Strategy, and Biological Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus