Social Learning and Digital Divides: A Case Study of Internet Technology Diffusion

Authors: Liu, Meng-chun¹; San, Gee²

Source: Kyklos, Volume 59, Number 2, May 2006 , pp. 307-321(15)

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Abstract:

SUMMARY

The past few decades have witnessed a widening of the digital divide among countries in the world. Bridging this global digital divide has now become an important development policy of many governments in the developing world. Differing from previous studies that look at the Internet's popularity, this paper focuses on the speed of diffusion of such technologies over the period from 1997 to 2002 in order to highlight its role as a critical driving force in enhancing the social learning of a country. Our empirical results show that a country with better social learning can harmonize its heterogeneous populations, promote the sharing of knowledge as a result of using such technologies, and finally speed up the rate of information technology diffusion.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2006.00329.x

Affiliations: 1: Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) and 2: National Central University

Publication date: 2006-05-01