The Educational Impacts of School Phone Bans: Evidence from Brazil
A recent study evaluated the effects of a phone ban in Rio de Janeiro schools. The research found that the ban led to a significant reduction in phone use and an improvement in test scores among students. This suggests that restricting non-educational phone use may have positive educational outcomes.
- ▪The study focused on a 2023 policy that banned non-pedagogical phone use in schools.
- ▪Researchers compared middle schools with strict phone rules to those without before and after the ban.
- ▪In treatment schools, in-school phone use decreased significantly, and test scores improved by 0.06 standard deviations.
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Home Research Working Papers The Educational Impacts of School Phone… The Educational Impacts of School Phone Bans: Evidence from Brazil Guilherme Lichand, Luca Moreno-Louzada, Thiago da Costa & Matthew Gentzkow Share X LinkedIn Facebook Bluesky Threads Email Link Working Paper 35233 DOI 10.3386/w35233 Issue Date May 2026 Concerns about negative impacts of student phone use have led to calls around the world for tighter restrictions on phones in schools. This paper evaluates the impact of a 2023 policy that banned non-pedagogical uses of phones within schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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