Featured Graphic: Digital Divide: The Geography of Internet Access

The Diffusion of the Internet and the Geography of the Digital Divide in the United States

This working paper analyzes the rapid diffusion of the Internet across the United States over the past decade for both households and firms. The authors put the Internet’s diffusion into the context of economic diffusion theory where they consider costs and benefits on the demand and supply side. They also discuss several pictures of the Internet’s physical presence using some of the current ma...

Internet and the Digital Divide

The Internet provides less benefit to the underdeveloped countries than to the developed ones. This holds true even when network access is similar in both countries. We argue that network access is not enough to reap full benefit from the Internet; therefore, simple universal access to the Internet in underdeveloped countries is not enough to close the breach of the Digital Divide. Keyword: Int...

Trust, the Internet, and the digital divide

The Internet is expected to have a positive impact on economic growth, and its adoption rate will determine the extent of this impact. In this paper, we examine how differences in willingness to trust influence Internet adoption rates across countries. We show that trust has a statistically significant influence on levels of Internet penetration across countries. We also show that success in in...

Beyond Access: Bridging the Digital Divide

This paper describes the theoretical underpinnings of an ongoing research project that is examining the relationship between e-Democracy and the ‘digital divide’. The literature surrounding the Digital Divide is reviewed, and the importance of equitable physical access to ICTs in the drive to bridge the issue of social exclusion examined. It is argued that any discussion of the phenomenon of th...

Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use*