The digital divide in general, and between women and men in particular, is a manifestation of exclusion, poverty and inequality, and is likely to continue because of the effects of unemployment, poorly functioning digital skilling programmes and socio-cultural norms in some economies, and...

To promote digital transformation, equal emphasis needs to be placed on digital skills development as to infrastructure development. Integral to investment in digital skills development is the subsequent management and evaluation of digital training programmes. This paper assesses mechanisms to...

Die Verfügbarkeit von IT-Akademikern und Breitbandinternet ist elementar, um die Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung erfolgreich bewältigen zu können. Ländliche Regionen weisen jedoch einen riesigen Rückstand im Vergleich zu Städten auf – und ihre Probleme sind zum Teil hausgemacht.

The paper investigates the determinants of Internet adoption in poor countries, focusing on the role of macro-geographic location (neighborhood). It is argued that neighboring countries are interconnected by various kinds of spillovers, including knowledge spillovers as well as spillovers of...

There is growing awareness amongst policy makers, scholars and practitioners that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector plays an important role in a country's economy and welfare. The ICT sector relies on highly performing technical infrastructures but also needs skilled...

Across Europe, policymakers and market forces are striving to deploy next generation access (NGA) networks and ensure ubiquitous access to superfast broadband services. Due to scale economies and sunk costs, the roll-out of NGA is expected to be profitable only for large-scale providers and in...

Millionen von Menschen weltweit beteiligen sich in verschiedenen Online-Kontexten und kreieren Inhalte auf Blogs, Wikis, persönlichen Seiten, in Online Communities oder auf sozialen Medien, wie Facebook und Twitter. Die Sozialwissenschaften untersuchen vermehrt die Formen, Treiber und Folgen...

Any assessment of ubiquitous, intelligent and mobile communication networks has to start with an adequate assessment of the underlying infrastructure. As the digital age continues its evolution into the new paradigms of big data and smart things, the digital divide evolves with it. While the...

This exploratory empirical study examines the extent of differences in information and communication technology (ICT) utilization among the various countries of Africa. This paper also enhances understanding of factors that impact ICT utilization and the digital divide in African countries. In...

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the impact of the adoption of information technologies (ICT) in poverty reduction by understanding how the poor obtain, share and use ICT on their everyday life - what we call the informational lives of the poor. It identifies the opportunities and...

My contribution is concerned with measures of Internet quality and availability used and usable in the analysis of the so called digital divide. The usage of the share of Internet users in the population – widely used in economic analysis – can easily be misleading in this debate, suggesting...

This paper discusses measures of Internet quality and availability used and usable in the analysis of the so called digital divide. The usage of the share of Internet users in the population - widely used in economic analysis - can easily be misleading in this debate. Based on this measure one...

This paper analyzes if and how the design of telecommunications regulatory institutions has influenced the evolution of Internet connectivity in approximately 100 countries between 2007 and 2014. While most advanced and developing countries have adopted policies and regulations intended to...

Consider the case in which we have data from repeated surveys covering several geographic areas, and our goal is to characterize these areas on a latent trait that underlies multiple indicators. This characterization occurs, for example, in surveys of information and communication technologies...

A review of literature indicates that most approaches emphasize bridging the digital divide, an approach focused solely on material gaps. However, the digital divide is perhaps the last of many, preceded by social, educational, economic, knowledge, and motivational divides. This stems from an...

Computers are an important part of modern education, yet many schoolchildren lack access to a computer at home. We test whether this impedes educational achievement by conducting the largest-ever field experiment that randomly provides free home computers to students. Although computer ownership...

'Two concepts that have become increasingly prominent in debate about contemporary economic policy are the digital economy and the creative economy. This pioneering Handbook brings these two concepts together, with contributions from a wide range of scholars in economics, law, cultural studies,...

Spätestens seit der Finanzkrise 2008 hat der Begriff des Kapitalismus wieder Konjunktur, und mit Thomas Pikettys Bestseller auch die Frage nach sozialer Ungleichheit. In diesem Buch denken die Autorinnen und Autoren - unter Federführung von Heinz Bude und Philipp Staab - beide Dimensionen...

Preface -- Today : welcome to the platform revolution -- Network effects: the power of the platform -- Architecture : principles for designing a successful platform -- Disruption : how platforms conquer and transform traditional industries -- Launch : chicken or egg? eight ways to launch a...