Television exposure in early childhood and subsequent cognitive outcomes: Evidence from rural China

Abstract

This study estimates the effect of television exposure in early childhood on subsequent cognitive outcomes using data from rural China. Exploiting the variations in the year of television access at the village level and children’s birth year, this study employs an extended two-way fixed effects (ETWFE) approach introduced by Wooldridge (2021). Baseline estimates, which are robust to staggered treatments, show that cognitive scores at ages 10–15 are significantly improved by full television exposure in early childhood (ages 0-5). Furthermore, there is suggestive evidence that this effect could be explained by the direct channel through which television enhances general knowledge level.