Abstract: Increasing household education expenditure is critical for improving human capital investment and expanding household consumption in China. This study analyzes how information capital embedded in internet usage influences household’s education choice and investment. Based on 2014 and 2016 wave of China Family Panel Survey data, this paper constructs a parent-child matched sample and uses the Coarsened Exact Match method to estimate the causal effect of using internet on human capital investment, and evaluate how inter-household variation in access to internet influences education investment gap. This study shows that mother’s internet use significantly increases the likelihood of a household’s participating in education choice in terms of school choice, school quality choice, and after-school tutoring. Information capital also induces families to spend more money on non-mandatory education expenditure and private tutoring. However, such positive effect disappears as the access to internet expands over time. Moreover, migrant children are less likely to benefit from this kind of digital dividend.

Key words: information capital, household education choice, human capital investment