Publication Details

Digital poverty

an analytical framework

Roxana Barrantes
2010

Abstract

In LDCs, internet access is praised as close to a panacea in order to take people out of poverty. As a consequence, policy makers usually aim at extending internet coverage disregarding the conditions necessary to better use the internet, such as literacy and people’s attitudes towards technology. To address the difficulties individuals have in attaining meaningful internet use, a framework is developed along three variables: connectivity; human capital – age and education; and type of internet use – active or passive. The framework allows us to classify the population in four groups: extremely digitally poor, digitally poor, connected, and digitally wealthy. Using econometric analysis, determinants of belonging to each category can be understood and better policies for internet inclusion can be designed. 

This framework for assessing digital poverty among individuals was tested through the use of an ad hoc survey. After classifying individuals according to the kinds of ICTs they use, different types of internet users are classified on the basis of interaction or functionality. The probability of belonging to each group is then explained by a set of indicators of human capital and economic poverty, controlling for the effects of household geographic location. The econometric results confirm the hypotheses on the importance of age and education: the more education that individuals have, the higher the probability that they will be digitally wealthy, while the older they are, the higher the probability that they will be digitally poor.

Publication Type(s)

Conference Paper

Ten Years of War Against Poverty Conference Papers

Conference: Ten Years of War Against Poverty

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