3. Reevaluating the Global Digital Divide:
Socio-Demographic and Conflict
Barriers to the Internet Revolution
4. • “No previous research has considered the
impact of political violence on Internet
development even though it is widely
acknowledged that political violence adversely
affects entire economies” (Seonjou and
Meernika 2005).
5. The Growing Relevance of Internet
Diffusion
The primary scholarly focus has been on the
economic impact of advanced tele-
communications.
(Cronin et al. 1991; Dholakia and Bari 1994;
Saunders, Warford, and Wellenius 1994).
9. ‘The Determinants of the global
digital divide: a cross-country
analysis of computer and internet
penetration’ – Menzie D. Chinn and
Robert W. Fairlie (2006)
10. Cross country differences
• 61.1 computers per 100 people in America, only 0.5
per 100 in South Asia, 1 Sub-Saharan Africa
• Even Central Europe and Central Asia, still 18.1
personal computers per 100
• Supply and demand
• 4 main variables in computer use
– Conventional infrastructure
– Demographic variables
– Economic variables
– Institutional quality or policy
• Main for internet penetration include:
• Electricity consumption
• Youth dependency
• Income per capita
11. Regional divides
• Income Fairlie (2003)
• Electric power consumption
• Age
• Urban
• Human capital
• Regulation
• Openness to trade
12. The Global Digital Divide in Media
• What actions can we take to bridge global
digital divide?
• Three fifths of the world is still without
internet
Huge differences in how many computers per people – especially North America compared to South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (computer penetration rate in US is nearly 550 times larger than rate in Ethiopia)
No other region of the world has even a third of the computer penetration rates of North America, internet penetration rates follow same pattern except Korea and Sweden slightly higher rates than US
Income likely to be factor for demand, consumers budget
1 e.g. telephone lines – actually some correlation, perhaps due to complementariness between computers and telephone lines
2 e.g. shares of population under 14 or over 65. higher youth associated with greater pc use
3 e.g. income per capita and human capital (years of schooling or literacy rate). Income per capita key factor – each $1000 increase in per capita income associated with more than 1% increase in number of pc’s per capita
4 regulatory quality control or trade openness – important in pc use and efficiency
Income: largest contributing GLOBAL factor, says most important e.g. computer costing $1500 is half average income in Sub-Saharan Africa, HOWEVER REGIONALLY Fairlie finds income differences explain only 25/£0% racial gap in computer ownership in USA
Electric: regional differences in electric power consumption contribute to global divide – explains 6.8% gap between Europe and Central Asia and USA, 2% variation in some places of USA
Age: USA has older population distribution – if other countries had same distribution, gap would be even worse
Urban: high percentages of people in urban areas actually provides negative contribution, like age, if other countries had s high a percentage of people in rural areas as USA divide would be higher
Human: school. Basic reading levels little difference but substantial levels make a difference
Regulatory: negative effect on technology, explains why many developing countries have lower computer penetration rates
Openness to trade: not important factor