Internet Adoption and Usage Patterns are Different: Implications for the Digital Divide by AVI GOLDFARB and JEFFREY PRINCE
Abstract: We show that Internet adoption and usage patterns are different. Using a survey of 18,439 Americans we find that high income, educated people are more likely to have adopted the Internet by December 2001. However, of those who have adopted, low income, less educated people spend more time online, even controlling for leisure time and for selection with a Heckman correction. Furthermore, these current non-adopters will use the Internet for many of the activities explicitly stated as goals of policy initiatives: telemedicine, e-government, and online communications. This result has important implications for policies aimed at closing the Digital Divide.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=882828
Internet Adoption and Usage Patterns are Different: Implications for the Digital Divide by AVI GOLDFARB and JEFFREY PRINCE
Abstract: We show that Internet adoption and usage patterns are different. Using a survey of 18,439 Americans we find that high income, educated people are more likely to have adopted the Internet by December 2001. However, of those who have adopted, low income, less educated people spend more time online, even controlling for leisure time and for selection with a Heckman correction. Furthermore, these current non-adopters will use the Internet for many of the activities explicitly stated as goals of policy initiatives: telemedicine, e-government, and online communications. This result has important implications for policies aimed at closing the Digital Divide.