The social process of internet appropriation: Living in a digitally advanced country benefits less well-educated Europeans

We generalize and extend the sequential model proposed by the resources and appropriation theory to explain the digital divide in the European Union plus the United Kingdom (EU27+UK). We measure the theoretical constructs of the model with data provided by the EU and test the theoretical predictions using a partial least squares structural equation model. We find support for the hypothesized relationships but find that the effects vary depending on the digital development level of countries. While education overall is the primary determinant of the social production of digital inequalities, a country's digital development level is crucial for less well-educated Europeans. These findings have theoretical and practical implications: (1) they call into question the homogeneity of the effect of causal relationships and the assumption that individuals differ only in terms of motivation, access, and digital skills, and (2) they indicate that socially disadvantaged Europeans benefit from living in more digitally developed countries.     

Who is left behind? Exploring the characteristics of China's broadband non-adopting families

China has made significant progress in broadband development. As of September 2018, 95% of China's population was covered by 4G networks. However, our estimates show that nearly 30% of China's families did not use broadband that year. This study attempts to investigate the characteristics of China's broadband left-behind families. Overall, consistent with the findings for other countries, families with a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be broadband non-adopters. In the information society, older, poorer, rural and less educated families are left behind. It is recommended that the Chinese government shift from a top-down investment-driven policy to a user-centered demand-driven policy to address the digital divide.     

Club convergence and drivers of digitalization across Indian states

Disparity in the level of digitalization is a crucial driver of economic inequality in an economy. Although a pocket of its population is still bereft of the benefits of digitalization, India currently has the second highest number of internet subscribers in the world despite the nation's late adoption of digital technology. An accurate assessment of the current state of digitalization in the country is required for devising effective initiatives towards building a Digital India and bridging the nation's internal digital divide. Considering 17 major Indian states and 21 variables for 10 years, we constructed a composite index of digitalization with the help of Principal Component Method (PCM). This paper identifies factors responsible for the digitalization divide across states. In the second part of the analysis, the study confirms, with the help of club convergence test, the absence of overall convergence towards digitalization and the existence of the non-convergent group. This paper also shows that the non-convergent group of states are at the bottom of the ranking table which indicates the need for greater attention to initiatives to bridge the digital divide.     

Infrastructure investment on the margins of the market: The role of niche infrastructure providers in the UK

Across Europe, policymakers and market forces are striving to deploy next generation access (NGA) networks and ensure ubiquitous access to superfast broadband services. Due to scale economies and sunk costs, the roll-out of NGA is expected to be profitable only for large-scale providers and in densely populated areas. Nonetheless, alternative providers, such as utilities and local communities, have significantly contributed to NGA diffusion in many countries. Over the past five years, several small-scale initiatives have emerged in the UK, bringing fibre networks to urban and rural areas previously overlooked by either commercial or subsidised deployments. A multiple case study approach is employed here to explore the nature and the drivers of niche providers in the UK NGA market. All these initiatives are demand-driven and to follow a modular approach. Despite adopting different business models, they all rely on the resources inherited from past broadband initiatives and relationships with local partners. By investigating the strategies of niche providers in NGA market, this analysis sheds light on their contribution to bridging the digital divide in the UK and is presented as a preliminary assessment of their sustainability and potential growth.     

Evolution and determinants of digital divide in Brazil (2005–2013)

During the last decades, the widespread growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has posed incentives to broaden the participation of individuals in social, political and economic dimensions of life. However, utilization of ICT also involves access to technology and infrastructure, and acquisition of skills to deal with innovations and, thus, digital literacy is, primarily, a complementary good. The digital divide expresses inequalities in access and utilization of ICT among individuals and populations in different countries. The study adopts inequalities indexes of Internet access and mobile phone ownership to measure use of ICT goods, accounting for the digital divide in Brazil. The inequality indexes are also split according to main determinants using four nationally representative survey data from 2005 to 2013. Results indicate that the digital divide among individuals is decreasing quite fast among Brazilians over time. However, there is room for policies of mass access to ICT goods based on mobile Internet broadband access. In addition, digital illiteracy, evaluated by lack of education, is one of the main determinants of the digital divide in the country, especially among elderly individuals.     

Progress of e-development in China since 1998

In this paper, a holistic analytical framework for tracing and understanding the progress of e-development is developed and adopted in an empirical case study of China’s e-development since 1998. In particular, the progress is analyzed systematically by benchmarking various ICT infrastructure and e-devices, the composition of Internet users, and the key dimensions of e-government, e-working, e-commerce, and e-networking. In addition, the questions of whether the geographical digital divide in the country has been narrowed is examined. Our findings show that (1) China has made noticeable progress in the e-development since 1998; yet, progress varied in different dimensions; (2) based on the overall performance, 2004 can be considered as the watershed for China to move from the formative stage to the developmental stage; (3) during the e-development, digital disparities in China have dramatically decreased at the provincial level, however, the urban-rural digital gap widened. We suggest that other than promoting affordable ICT possession, the wider and more diversified e-applications for different walks of life will be important for China to move towards the mature stage.     

机构编制电子政务建设模式与对策研究——以河北省为例

为了解决机构编制创新管理问题,提出电子政务建设模式,以河北省为例分析机构编制电子政务建设在观念意识、软硬件环境等方面的问题,提出解决对策,得出合理的机构编制电子政务模式有助于机构改革的结论。     

Does computer penetration increase farmers’ income? An empirical study from China

The diffusion and adoption of modern information technology provide new chance for China to close urban-rural income gap. This paper uses China's provincial panel data from 2002 to 2013 to investigate the effect of computer penetration on rural residents' income. A public program aiming to connect every village with broadband Internet and other rural facilities provides plausibly exogenous variation in rural residents' availability and adoption of the broadband Internet, which is used to explore the instrument variable for rural computer penetration. The results show that rural computer penetration tends to increase rural residents' income over time, but the average effect remains limited. The dynamic panel threshold effects model, which allows for both the threshold variable and other covariates to be endogenous, is further used to explore the constraints of the income-increase effect of rural computer penetration. It shows that the effect is at least doubled over the average effect estimated from instrument variables method, once the digital divide causes are removed. Our findings have important implications for the government to increase rural residents' income and reduce urban-rural income gap by encouraging rural computer usage and removing the digital divide.     

城市外来人口的户籍身份与卫生服务利用——以昆明市官渡区为例

基于最新的研究动向与成果,按照区域分割和城乡分割相结合的双重视角,探讨外来农业人口、外来城市人口、本地农业人口和本地城市人口在卫生服务利用上的差异。城乡分割主要是"遗产性"的影响,表现为外来人口内部的农业(户籍)人口与非农业(户籍)人口在流入地卫生服务利用上的差距;区域分割的影响显著,表现为两个外来人口群体与本地人口之间在获取城市卫生服务上的差距。外来农业人口受区域分割和城乡分割的双重影响,处于研究群体的最底层,使用私人诊所和在家接生的概率最大。     

甘肃省大樱桃种植区域划分研究

大樱桃因果期早,营养价值高,经济效益好,成为近年来我国发展最快的果树品种之一。由于大樱桃对气候环境较为敏感,引种栽培又缺乏与气候适宜性相关的研究,以致大樱桃区域性盲目引种栽培现象严重,存在种植不成功、且分散独立、栽植面积小、产量低、品质差、上市集中、市场竞争力差、经济效益低等现象。为了研究大樱桃引种栽培的气候适宜性,文章选择甘肃省东南部大樱桃引种栽培地区作为研究范围,以天水市秦城区气候条件为参照,对比大樱桃欧洲原产地气候条件,选取年平均气温、年降雨量、年日照时数、10℃的有效积温及无霜期5项典型气候因子,用聚类分析和相似系数法进行定量和定性分析法,将甘肃省大樱桃引种栽培区依次划分为优势区、适宜区、较适宜区、可宜区及不宜区5类,并对各栽植区大樱桃发展策略进行了阐述,提出了主要气候因素间相似系数0.95的引种栽培分界线的建议,为大樱桃的科学引种栽培及规模化发展提供指导。