In this paper we examine the importance of local spillovers--such as network externalities and learning from others--in the diffusion of home computers. We use data on 110,000 U.S. households in 1997. Controlling for many individual characteristics, we find that people are more likely to buy their first home computer in areas where a high fraction of households already own computers or when a large share of their friends and family own computers. Further results suggest that these patterns are unlikely to be explained by common unobserved traits or by area features. When looked at in more detail, the spillovers appear to come from experienced and intensive computer users. They are not associated with the use of any particular type of software but do seem to be highly tied to the use of e-mail and the Internet, consistent with computers being part of an information or communication network. Copyright 2002 by the University of Chicago.
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for
download. To find whether it is available, there are three
options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page
whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be
available.
Volume (Year): 45 (2002) Issue (Month): 2 (October) Pages: 317-43 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:v:45:y:2002:i:2:p:317-43
Contact details of provider: Postal: The University of Chicago Press, Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005 Chicago, IL 60637 Fax: (773) 753-0811 Email: Web page: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLE/
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Boyan Jovanovic & Glenn MacDonald, 1994.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
NBER Working Papers
4463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Jovanovic, Boyan & MacDonald, Glenn M., 1988.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
Working Papers
88-29, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
[Downloadable!]
Jovanovic, B. & MacDonald, G.M., 1991.
"Competitive Diffusion,"
Papers
92-08, Rochester, Business - Financial Research and Policy Studies.
Nicholas Economides, 1995.
"The Economics of Networks,"
Working Papers
94-24, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics, revised Sep 1995.
[Downloadable!]
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.) This item has more than 25 citations. To prevent cluttering this page, these citations are listed on a separate page.