Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/296852 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
ISER Discussion Paper No. 1207
Publisher: 
Osaka University, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), Osaka
Abstract: 
As schools worldwide were forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, they struggled to switch to online education. Using Japan's nationwide administrative data, we examine the impact of schools' ICT equipment and teachers' IT skills on the provision of online classes, communication with students' families, and teachers' working hours during and shortly after the closures. To isolate supply-side effects, we exploit differences in ICT resources between public elementary and junior high schools using a municipality-level fixed effects model, the level at which ICT resources are decided. We find that basic ICT equipment was critical to implementing online classes, but IT skills were not. Furthermore, we observe no effect of ICT resources on schools' communication with families. However, IT skills were associated with teachers' working hours. In particular, weak IT skills resulted in a higher percentage of teachers working overtime.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
remote education
overtime work
teachers' skills
school resources
JEL: 
I20
J22
H75
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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