Regional Versus Individual Aspects of the Digital Divide in Germany

Katrin Schleife

ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: This paper analyzes the regional dimension of the German digital divide. It studies the determinants of home Internet use in Germany on the level of counties as well as on the level of individuals. Based on two large data sets, the analyses show that population density itself cannot explain regional differences in Internet use rates. The results rather indicate that it is the different composition of individual characteristics between rural and urban populations that accounts for the regional digital divide. At individual level, the findings underline the importance of network effects.

Keywords: digital divide; Internet use; network effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 O33 R20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-geo and nep-net
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7438

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