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

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  • Stefan Bauernschuster
  • Oliver Falck
  • Ludger Woessmann

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.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 3469.

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Date of creation: 2011
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3469

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Keywords: internet; social capital;

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References

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  1. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 1998. "Interfirm Relationships and Informal Credit in Vietnam," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 132, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
  2. Ofer Malamud & Cristian Pop-Eleches, 2011. "Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 126(2), pages 987-1027.
  3. Tanya S. Rosenblat & Markus M. Mobius, 2004. "Getting Closer or Drifting Apart?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 119(3), pages 971-1009, August.
  4. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross & Giorgio Topa, 2004. "Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes," Working papers 2004-07, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2005.
  5. Claudio Michelacci & Olmo Silva, 2007. "Why So Many Local Entrepreneurs?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-633, November.
  6. Jonathan Temple & Paul A. Johnson, 1998. "Social Capability And Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(3), pages 965-990, August.
  7. Nina Czernich & Oliver Falck & Tobias Kretschmer & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 505-532, 05.
  8. Jacob L. Vigdor & Helen F. Ladd, 2010. "Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement," NBER Working Papers 16078, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Betsey Stevenson, 2009. "The Internet and Job Search," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Labor Market Intermediation, pages 67-86 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. Moulton, Brent R., 1986. "Random group effects and the precision of regression estimates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 385-397, August.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The Internet did not raise a generation of loners
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-07-11 14:53:00
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Cited by:
  1. Oliver Falck & Robert Gold & Stephan Heblich, 2012. "E-Lections: Voting Behavior and the Internet," CESifo Working Paper Series 3827, CESifo Group Munich.
  2. Antoci, Angelo & Sabatini, Fabio & Sodini, Mauro, 2011. "Bowling alone but tweeting together: the evolution of human interaction in the social networking era," MPRA Paper 34232, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  3. Mario Vozar, 2011. "Marriage Dot EU: The Effect of Internet Usage on Marriage Hazard," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp444, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economic Institute, Prague.
  4. Ludger Wößmann & Oliver Falck & Stefan Bauernschuster, 2011. "Symposium: Homo Digitalis – Zerrüttet das Internet unsere Gesellschaft? brKein Grund für Innovationsfeindlichkeit und Kulturpessimismus: Das Internet erodiert nicht die Grundlagen unserer Gesellsc," Ifo Schnelldienst, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 64(12), pages 10-12, 07.

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