Reducing the digital divide for marginalized households

Guglielmo Barone, Annalisa Loviglio and Denni Tommasi

Working Papers from Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna

Abstract: Digital skills are increasingly essential for full participation in modern life. Yet many low-income families face a dual digital divide: limited access to technology and limited ability to use it effectively. These gaps can undermine adults' ability to support their children's education, restrict access to public services, and reduce their own employability. Despite growing policy attention, rigorous evidence on how to close these gaps - especially among disadvantaged adults in high-income countries - remains scarce. We evaluate the impact of a comprehensive digital inclusion program in Turin, Italy, targeting 859 low-income families with school-aged children. Participants were randomly assigned to a control group or one of two treatment arms, each combining a free tablet with internet access and digital literacy training of different durations. One year later, treated participants reported large improvements in digital skills and daily technology use. Parents also became more confident in guiding their children's online activities, more engaged in digital parenting, and more likely to access public services digitally. We find no short-run effects on employment or job search behavior, but treated participants expressed greater optimism about future training prospects. Effects are statistically similar across the two training intensities, suggesting that once basic barriers are removed, digital engagement can become self-sustaining. Mediation analysis confirms that digital skills - not just access - are key drivers of these outcomes. Sequential effects are particularly strong in the domains of social inclusion and parenting. The findings underscore the importance of addressing both financial and learning constraints and suggest that bundled interventions can foster inclusive digital participation.

JEL-codes: C93 I24 J24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://amsacta.unibo.it/8392/1/WP1205.pdf (application/pdf)

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:bol:bodewp:wp1205

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna ().