Using Internet Usage to Examining the Digital Divide between Urban and Rural Area in Taiwan
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Huang, Shih-Sung
Abstract
Due to technology advancement, Taiwanhas converted to an informatization society. New social patterns bring many benefits through making life easier and rapid dissemination of information. But there is alsodifferences in technology adoption between the different ethnic groups, which cause the negative impactsthat we call the digital divide. The statistical data indicate that the use of internet in Taiwan significantly increased over years. However, rural areas have lower information equipment utilization rates, which shows that Taiwan does exist the digital divide between urban and rural areas.
This study uses the internet usage as the measurement of digital capability to address several issues related to digital inequality between rural and urban areas. First, we investigate whether there exists digital divide between urban and rural residences. We then examine the urban-rural digital divide among different socio-demographic groups. Finally, we investigate the effectiveness in 2007 policy, which was designed to reduce digital divide. Data used in the empirical analysis consistsof people aged 15 and over drawn from the Taiwan Digital Divide Survey in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.The empirical analysis was conducted in a two-stage framework. The first stage analysis estimates internet usageusing the Probit Model, andthe second stage analysis decomposes the urban-rural digital divide using Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Model.
Results show that the probability of internet usage is higher for male residents. A positive association is also found between internet usage and education and household income. In contrast, internet usage is negatively correlated with age and household size. In the results of the decomposition analysis, the explainted part in digital divide accounted for about 80% of the total digital inequality. Also, the digital divide is mainly driven by the differences in the differences in education level, followed by work-related, the age and household income differences. On contrast, gender and number of household members have no significant effect. Digital divide had been reduced after implementing of the policy, and the main reason is the reduction in endowment effect of education and work-related factors.
Subjects
Digital Divide
Internet use
Type
thesis
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