How Effective Is Subsidizing Access to Broader Digital Educational Content? Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Study on a Reading App

Problem definition: Digital educational technologies have the potential to address educational inequality by providing affordable and accessible learning resources. However, it remains unclear whether access to a wide range of learning resources through digital technologies corrects or exacerbates existing disparities, in both the short and the long run, among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Methodology/results: Using data from a unique large-scale field study conducted by a digital reading app for K-12 children, we apply a staggered difference-in-differences design to identify the causal effect of subsidizing a broad scope of digital reading resources. Our results show that providing free access to a broad scope of digital reading materials leads to an immediate increase of 428% in daily reading time, with the largest short-term effects observed among children from less developed cities. However, this initial boost in engagement declines sharply over time, particularly for children in less developed areas. We find suggestive evidence that the long-term difference in reading patterns reflects differing levels of parental involvement in the education of children of different socioeconomic status. The long-term contrast between children from poor and rich cities is stronger during the weekend and holidays when parents are more likely to be present. Compared with children in rich cities, children from poor cities perform worse in selecting the “right difficulty” content to read and are less able to sustain long reading sessions, especially with materials that demand more cognitive resources and parental support. Managerial implications: Our findings provide operational insights for EdTech firms and policy recommendations for policymakers, highlighting the critical role of parental involvement in fostering children’s learning persistence and their long-term participation in subsidized educational programs