A large majority of teenagers use mobile phones. In the United States, 72% of teens owned a mobile phone in 2012, while in England, the proportion was 90.3.%. There is a debate in both countries as to how schools should address the issue of mobile phones. Some advocate for a complete ban, while others promote the use of mobile phones as a teaching tool in classrooms. Schools differ on how they have reacted to this phenomenon, with some applying strict bans and others allowing their usage. Despite their prevalence, the consequences of mobile phones for high school student performance has not been studied to date.

Our paper investigates the impact of schools’ mobile phone policies on student performance. Combining administrative data with a unique dataset on autonomous mobile phone policies from a survey of schools in four English cities, we investigate the impact of introducing a mobile phone ban on student performance. Our results indicate that there is an increase in student performance after a school bans the use of mobile phones and that the gains are driven by the lowest-achieving students. This suggests that banning mobile phones from school premises reduces educational inequality.