Can one laptop per child reduce digital inequalities? ICT household access patterns under Plan Ceibal

Carlos Díaz, Matías Dodel and Pablo Menese

Telecommunications Policy, 2022, vol. 46, issue 9

Abstract: The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion processes within highly unequal societies produce stratification in the access to digital technologies and thus, maintain or even increase previous socioeconomic disparities. While technological utopians believed that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)-like programs could reduce societal inequalities, the economics literature evaluating these initiatives has mostly focused on student's human capital. Results suggest no impact, even for successful programs such as Uruguay's own OLPC-inspired Plan Ceibal. In this paper, we use an event-study approach to difference-indifferences to identify the impact of Plan Ceibal on the household adoption of technological goods across income quintiles. Our results show that Plan Ceibal helped to bridge domestic digital disparities in terms of access to PC and favored the uptake of internet services. We discuss the potential mechanisms behind these results. Regarding household PC access, even though Plan Ceibal was conceived as a universal program targeting primary-level students attending public schools, both infantilization of poverty and a dual-system educational stratification may explain why this initiative had a heterogenous impact across different income groups. Regarding household connectivity, Plan Ceibal reduced the cost of the bundle required to consume internet services at the time of the study, improving affordability and access among households with beneficiaries of the program.

Keywords: Digital inequalities; One laptop per child; ICT household Access; Technological diffusion; Plan ceibal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 L86 R20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102406

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