The Diffusion of the Internet and the Geography of the Digital Divide in the United States By Shane Greenstein and Jeff Prince 1 December 2005

This chapter analyzes the rapid diffusion of the Internet across the United States over the past decade for both households and firms. We put the Internet’s diffusion into the context of economic diffusion theory where we consider costs and benefits on the demand and supply side. We also discuss several pictures of the Internet’s current physical presence using some of the main techniques for Internet measurement to date. We highlight different economic perspectives and explanations for the digital divide, that is, unequal availability and use of the Internet. 1 Northwestern University, Department of Management and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, and Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management, respectively. We thank the Kellogg School of Management for financial support. We thank an anonymous review and the editors for extensive comments. All errors contained here are our responsibility.