IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v41y2017i1p12-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Nishijima, Marislei
  • Ivanauskas, Terry Macedo
  • Sarti, Flavia Mori

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Nishijima, Marislei & Ivanauskas, Terry Macedo & Sarti, Flavia Mori, 2017. "Evolution and determinants of digital divide in Brazil (2005–2013)," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 12-24.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:41:y:2017:i:1:p:12-24
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2016.10.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596116301835
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2016.10.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Loo, Becky P.Y. & Ngan, Y.L., 2012. "Developing mobile telecommunications to narrow digital divide in developing countries? Some lessons from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 888-900.
    2. James, M.J., 2008. "The digital divide across all citizens of the world : A new concept," Other publications TiSEM 83add553-11e1-4e2c-83b8-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Prieger, James E., 2013. "The broadband digital divide and the economic benefits of mobile broadband for rural areas," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 483-502.
    4. Zhang, Xiaoqun, 2013. "Income disparity and digital divide: The Internet Consumption Model and cross-country empirical research," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 515-529.
    5. Oecd, 2001. "Understanding the Digital Divide," OECD Digital Economy Papers 49, OECD Publishing.
    6. -, 2011. "ICT in Latin America: a microdata analysis," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 35290, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    7. Jeffrey James, 2008. "The Digital Divide Across All Citizens of the World: A New Concept," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 275-282, November.
    8. Vergara, Sebastián & Rovira, Sebastián & Balboni, Mariana, 2011. "ICT in Latin America: A Microdata Analysis," MPRA Paper 34598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Smaranda Pantea, 2014. "Has the digital divide been reversed? – Evidence from five EU countries," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 11(1), pages 13-42, December.
    10. Vicente, María Rosalía & López, Ana Jesús, 2011. "Assessing the regional digital divide across the European Union-27," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 220-237, April.
    11. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Watanabe, Naoko, 2003. "On decomposing the causes of health sector inequalities with an application to malnutrition inequalities in Vietnam," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 207-223, January.
    12. repec:ipt:wpaper:2013-06 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Michael Demoussis & Nicholas Giannakopoulos, 2006. "Facets of the digital divide in Europe: Determination and extent of internet use," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 235-246.
    14. Charles R. Boehmer & Sergio Peña, 2012. "The Determinants of Open and Closed Borders," Journal of Borderlands Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 273-285, December.
    15. Hildebrando Rodrigues Macedo & Alexandre Xavier Ywata de Carvalho, 2010. "Análise de Possíveis Determinantes da Penetração do Serviço de Acesso à Internet em Banda Larga nos Municípios Brasileiros," Discussion Papers 1503, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - IPEA.
    16. Mohsen Khalil & Charles Kenny, 2008. "The Next Decade of ICT Development: Access, Applications, and the Forces of Convergence," Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press, vol. 4(3), pages 1-6, April/Jul.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Grybauskas, Andrius & Stefanini, Alessandro & Ghobakhloo, Morteza, 2022. "Social sustainability in the age of digitalization: A systematic literature Review on the social implications of industry 4.0," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Wang, Di & Zhou, Tao & Lan, Feng & Wang, Mengmeng, 2021. "ICT and socio-economic development: Evidence from a spatial panel data analysis in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7).
    3. Mora-Rivera, Jorge & García-Mora, Fernando, 2021. "Internet access and poverty reduction: Evidence from rural and urban Mexico," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).
    4. Myovella, Godwin & Karacuka, Mehmet & Haucap, Justus, 2021. "Determinants of digitalization and digital divide in Sub-Saharan African economies: A spatial Durbin analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10).
    5. Martínez-Domínguez, Marlen & Mora-Rivera, Jorge, 2020. "Internet adoption and usage patterns in rural Mexico," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    6. Holden, Stein T. & Tilahun, Mesfin, 2021. "Mobile phones, leadership and gender in rural business groups," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    7. Holden , Stein T. & Tilahun , Mesfin, 2018. "Gender Digital Divide and Youth Business Group Leadership," CLTS Working Papers 5/18, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 16 Oct 2019.
    8. Silva, Thiago Christiano & Coelho, Florângela Cunha & Ehrl, Philipp & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2020. "Internet access in recessionary periods: The case of Brazil," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 537(C).
    9. Granguillhome Ochoa, Rogelio & Lach, Samantha & Masaki, Takaaki & Rodríguez-Castelán, Carlos, 2022. "Mobile internet adoption in West Africa," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Lopez-Sintas, Jordi & Lamberti, Giuseppe & Sukphan, Jakkapong, 2020. "The social structuring of the digital gap in a developing country. The impact of computer and internet access opportunities on internet use in Thailand," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Mendoza-Lozano, Frederick Andrés & Quintero-Peña, Jose Wilmar & García-Rodríguez, Jose Felix, 2021. "The digital divide between high school students in Colombia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10).
    12. Setthasuravich, Prasongchai & Kato, Hironori, 2020. "The mediating role of the digital divide in outcomes of short-term transportation policy in Thailand," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 161-171.
    13. Wang, Di & Zhou, Tao & Wang, Mengmeng, 2021. "Information and communication technology (ICT), digital divide and urbanization: Evidence from Chinese cities," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Alex Sandro Weymer & Heitor Kato & Claudimar Da Veiga & Alex Antônio Ferraresi, 2017. "The Influence of Relational Learning of a Transnational Egocentric Network on Innovation Competence for Internationalization," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(7), pages 1-38, July.
    15. Ankush Agrawal & Chavi Asrani, 2018. "Digital divide among the Indian households: extent and correlates," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(4), pages 2444-2466.
    16. Pérez-Amaral, Teodosio & Valarezo, Angel & López, Rafael & Garín-Muñoz, Teresa, 2021. "Digital divides across consumers of internet services in Spain using panel data 2007–2019. Narrowing or not?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).
    17. Abdisalan Salad Warsame, 2021. "The Relationship Between Information & Communication Technology and Foreign Direct Investment Inflow to Africa," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, May.
    18. Martínez-Domínguez, Marlen & Fierros-González, Isael, 2022. "Determinants of internet use by school-age children: The challenges for Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1).
    19. Forenbacher, Ivan & Husnjak, Siniša & Cvitić, Ivan & Jovović, Ivan, 2019. "Determinants of mobile phone ownership in Nigeria," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1-1.
    20. Rahman, Md Mahabubur & Ara, Tasnim & Chakma, Rio, 2022. "Explaining geospatial variation in mobile phone ownership among rural women of Bangladesh: A multi-level and multidimensional approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).
    21. Grishchenko, Natalia, 2020. "The gap not only closes: Resistance and reverse shifts in the digital divide in Russia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grishchenko, Natalia, 2020. "The gap not only closes: Resistance and reverse shifts in the digital divide in Russia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8).
    2. Silva, Thiago Christiano & Coelho, Florângela Cunha & Ehrl, Philipp & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2020. "Internet access in recessionary periods: The case of Brazil," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 537(C).
    3. Hilbert, Martin, 2016. "The bad news is that the digital access divide is here to stay: Domestically installed bandwidths among 172 countries for 1986–2014," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 567-581.
    4. Ventura, Eva & Satorra, Albert, 2015. "A multiple indicator model for panel data: an application to ICT area-level variation," 26th European Regional ITS Conference, Madrid 2015 127191, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    5. Margarita Billon & Rocio Marco & Fernando Lera-Lopez, 2017. "Innovation and ICT use in the EU: an analysis of regional drivers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 1083-1108, November.
    6. Grazzi, Matteo & Vergara, Sebastián, 2012. "ICT in developing countries: Are language barriers relevant? Evidence from Paraguay," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 161-171.
    7. Frederico Cruz-Jesus & Tiago Oliveira & Fernando Bacao & Zahir Irani, 2017. "Assessing the pattern between economic and digital development of countries," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 835-854, August.
    8. Szeles, Monica Răileanu, 2018. "New insights from a multilevel approach to the regional digital divide in the European Union," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 452-463.
    9. Jain, Rekha, 2016. "Factors Influencing Outcome Expectations and Self-Efficacy in Driving Internet Use in Rural India," IIMA Working Papers WP2016-03-62, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    10. Frederico Cruz-Jesus & Tiago Oliveira & Fernando Bacao & Zahir Irani, 0. "Assessing the pattern between economic and digital development of countries," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    11. Ventura, Eva & Satorra, Albert, 2015. "A multiple indicator model for panel data: An application to ICT area-level variation," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 830-847.
    12. Eva Ventura & Albert Satorra, 2014. "A multiple indicator model for panel data: an application to ICT area-level variation," Economics Working Papers 1419, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    13. Katja Prevodnik & Vasja Vehovar, 2014. "Presenting dynamics of social phenomena: should we use absolute, relative or time differences?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 799-816, March.
    14. Zhouying Song & Tao Song & Yu Yang & Zhenbo Wang, 2019. "Spatial–Temporal Characteristics and Determinants of Digital Divide in China: A Multivariate Spatial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-21, August.
    15. Olimpia NEAGU, 2019. "Digital Divide Gap Convergence Across European Union: The Role Of Urbanisation," Contemporary Economy Journal, Constantin Brancoveanu University, vol. 4(1), pages 43-48.
    16. Sadaf Bashir & Bert Sadowski, 2014. "General Purpose Technologies: A Survey, a Critique and Future Research Directions," Working Papers 14-02, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Feb 2014.
    17. Jun Wen & Hadi Hussain & Renai Jiang & Junaid Waheed, 2023. "Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    18. Chia-Hui Chen & Chao-Lung Liu & Bryant Pui Hung Hui & Ming-Lun Chung, 2020. "Does Education Background Affect Digital Equal Opportunity and the Political Participation of Sustainable Digital Citizens? A Taiwan Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Sara Ayllón & Halla Holmarsdottir & Samuel Lado, 2023. "Digitally Deprived Children in Europe," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(3), pages 1315-1339, June.
    20. Chun-Hung A. Lin & Ho-Shan Lin & Ching-Po Hsu, 2017. "Digital Divide and Income Inequality: A Spatial Analysis," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 8, pages 31-43, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internet; Digital divide; Inequality; Access; Mobile;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:41:y:2017:i:1:p:12-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.