Surfing Alone? The Internet and Social Capital: Evidence from an Unforeseeable Technological Mistake

Stefan Bauernschuster, Oliver Falck and Ludger Woessmann

No 3469, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Does the Internet undermine social capital or facilitate inter-personal and civic engagement in the real world? Merging unique telecommunication data with geo-coded German individual-level data, we investigate how broadband Internet affects several dimensions of social capital. One identification strategy uses panel information to estimate value-added models. A second exploits a quasi-experiment in East Germany created by a mistaken technology choice of the state-owned telecommunication provider in the 1990s that still hinders broadband Internet access for many households. We find no evidence that the Internet reduces social capital. For some measures including children’s social activities, we even find significant positive effects.

Keywords: internet; social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Surfing alone? The internet and social capital: Evidence from an unforeseeable technological mistake (2014)
Working Paper: Surfing Alone? The Internet and Social Capital: Evidence from an Unforeseeable Technological Mistake (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3469

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