Web Survey Bibliography
Title The Digital Divide: Diffusion and use of ICTs
Author Montagnier, P., Muller, E., Vickery, G.
Year 2002
Access date 24.03.2004
Full text doc (3180k)
Abstract Differences in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as computers and the Internet, create a “digital divide” between those that can benefit from opportunities provided by ICTs and those that cannot. Access to the information and communication resources that these technologies enable is increasingly viewed as critical for economic and social development. Additionally, network economics mean that the more that use ICTs the greater the value to all. This paper provides an overview of PC and Internet access for households and businesses in those countries for which national statistical data is available. Differences in diffusion and use of ICTs and electronic commerce may create new kinds of social divides and accentuate existing divides within countries related to income, education, age and family type, and particular sub-national regions. Differences may also create new kinds of business divides, related to sectoral composition, firm size or region. This study finds that there are particularly striking differences in PC and Internet access by household income and education. There are also considerable differences by business sector and firm size. The household digital divide could be said to be growing as the access gap between those with the highest and lowest levels of ICT access is getting bigger. Conversely, the digital divide could also be said to be shrinking, as rates of growth are faster for lagging groups. Common measures of distributional inequalities such as Gini coefficients also show the digital divide to be shrinking. OECD countries are increasingly concerned with differences in access, and most have introduced policies and programmes to reduce the digital divide. However, policies are not one size fits all, and different policies may be more appropriate for countries with different market structures and are receiving differential emphasis.
Access/Direct link Homepage - conference (full text)
Year of publication2002
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Web Survey Bibliography - IAOS Conference on Official Statistics and the New Economy, 2002 (7)
- Electronic data collection in Statistic Norway; 2002; Saebo, H.V., Gloersen, R., Sve, D.
- ICT and Business Performance in Italy; 2002; de Panizza, A., Nascia, L., Nurra, A., Oropallo, F., Riccardini, F.
- Information And Communication Technologies And E-Commerce In Basque Companies: A Statistical Approach...; 2002; Moran Alaez, E.
- The Digital Divide: Diffusion and use of ICTs; 2002; Montagnier, P., Muller, E., Vickery, G.
- The EU surveys on ICT usage of enterprises; 2002; Deiss, R.
- The Impact of the Internet on Society; 2002; Allin, P., Bowman, J., Cooper-Green, E. J., Randall, C.
- Measuring the Digital Divide; 2002; Riccardini, F., Fazio, M.