ICT use by households and firms in the EU: links and determinants from a multivariate perspective

Margarita Billon (), Fernando Lera-Lopez () and Rocio Marco ()
Additional contact information
Margarita Billon: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Fernando Lera-Lopez: Universidad Pública de Navarra
Rocio Marco: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), 2016, vol. 152, issue 4, No 2, 629-654

Abstract: Abstract The progress toward a digital economy in Europe involves boosting ICT use in various environments, such as households and firms. Studies available at the regional level in Europe focus on ICT use by households. This paper sheds light on the digital divide by exploring the differences in ICT use across European regions, investigating simultaneously not only ICT use by households but also by firms. Using canonical correlation analysis, we first explore the existence of regional patterns of ICT use in Europe. Second, we test the influence of regional characteristics to explain ICT use by households and firms. Our results identify a first pattern defined by the regions that combine high levels of both ICT uses. This pattern is explained primarily by the quality of the regional government, knowledge-intensive services and economic development variables. A divide between southern and northern, and western and eastern regions is detected. We also identify a second pattern that captures ICT use by firms (not related to the first), predominantly determined by educational variables and some economic factors. This pattern does not exhibit the geographical digital divide found in the first. The findings show that there are synergies and regional factors explaining the use of ICT both at home and at work at the regional level in Europe that should be considered when designing public policy geared toward encouraging ICT diffusion.

Keywords: Internet; Firms; Households; Digital divide; Regions; ICT skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O14 O33 O52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10290-016-0259-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:weltar:v:152:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s10290-016-0259-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10290/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10290-016-0259-8

Access Statistics for this article

Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv) is currently edited by Paul Bergin, Holger Görg, Cédric Tille and Gerald Willmann

More articles in Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv) from Springer, Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().