IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/apecpp/v43y2021i1p458-464.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Revisiting the Digital Divide in the COVID‐19 Era

Author

Listed:
  • John Lai
  • Nicole O. Widmar

Abstract

The digital divide limits opportunities for those without ready access to Internet. Movement online of essential activities during COVID‐19 took inadequate Internet service from inconvenient to emergency/crisis for many households. A negative correlation between rurality and Internet speed was found at the county level, highlighting the struggle for rural areas. Schools tackle challenges of providing equitable educational access by attempting to provide access for students, while even households with service available struggle to maintain sufficient speeds and/or can afford it. Essential activities moved online, yet sufficient Internet is an essential public service that remains unattainable for many US households.

Suggested Citation

  • John Lai & Nicole O. Widmar, 2021. "Revisiting the Digital Divide in the COVID‐19 Era," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 458-464, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:apecpp:v:43:y:2021:i:1:p:458-464
    DOI: 10.1002/aepp.13104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13104
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/aepp.13104?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Lai & Nicole O. Widmar & Courtney Bir, 2020. "Eliciting Consumer Willingness to Pay for Home Internet Service: Closing the Digital Divide in the State of Indiana," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 263-282, June.
    2. Amy M.G. Kandilov & Ivan T. Kandilov & Xiangping Liu & Mitch Renkow, 2017. "The Impact of Broadband on U.S. Agriculture: An Evaluation of the USDA Broadband Loan Program," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 39(4), pages 635-661.
    3. LaRose, Robert & Gregg, Jennifer L. & Strover, Sharon & Straubhaar, Joseph & Carpenter, Serena, 0. "Closing the rural broadband gap: Promoting adoption of the Internet in rural America," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6-7), pages 359-373, July.
    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. Bruno, Giuseppe & Diglio, Antonio & Piccolo, Carmela & Pipicelli, Eduardo, 2023. "A reduced Composite Indicator for Digital Divide measurement at the regional level: An application to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Anzhela Popyk & Paula Pustułka, 2023. "Educational Disadvantages During COVID-19 Pandemic Faced by Migrant Schoolchildren in Poland," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 487-505, June.
    3. Janet Music & Lisa Mullins & Sylvain Charlebois & Charlotte Large & Kydra Mayhew, 2022. "Seeds and the city: a review of municipal home food gardening programs in Canada in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Maria Symeonaki & George Filandrianos & Giorgos Stamou, 2022. "Visualising key information and communication technologies (ICT) indicators for children and young individuals in Europe," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Dai Pu & Victoria Palmer & Louise Greenstock & Cathie Pigott & Anna Peeters & Lena Sanci & Michele Callisaya & Colette Browning & Wendy Chapman & Terry Haines, 2023. "Identifying Public Healthcare Priorities in Virtual Care for Older Adults: A Participatory Research Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Gregory Scott Child & Kim Song, 2023. "Digital Inequities: Promoting Digital Justice during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-21, August.
    7. Kaplan, Marcella & Hotle, Susan & Heaslip, Kevin, 2023. "How has COVID-19 impacted customer perceptions and demand for delivery services: An exploratory analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 217-230.
    8. McMahon, Rob & Akçayır, Murat, 2022. "Voices from Northern Canada: Integrating stakeholder expectations in telecommunications policy for rural, remote and Northern regions," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).
    9. Stephen Rodriguez-Elliott & Karl Vachuska, 2023. "Measuring the Digital Divide: A Neighborhood-Level Analysis of Racial Inequality in Internet Speed during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-11, April.
    10. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2022. "Inequalities in the times of a pandemic," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 5-41.

    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. John Lai & Nicole O. Widmar & Courtney Bir, 2020. "Eliciting Consumer Willingness to Pay for Home Internet Service: Closing the Digital Divide in the State of Indiana," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(2), pages 263-282, June.
    2. LoPiccalo, Katherine, 2022. "Impact of broadband penetration on U.S. Farm productivity: A panel approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9).
    3. Ganuza, Juan José & Viecens, María Fernanda, 2011. "Deployment of high-speed broadband infrastructures during the economic crisis. The case of Xarxa Oberta," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 857-870.
    4. McCoy,Selina & Lyons,Seán & Coyne,Bryan & Darmody,Merike, 2017. "Teaching and Learning in Second- Level Schools at the Advent of High-Speed Broadband," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS51, June.
    5. Shuaitao Jiao & Qiubi Sun, 2021. "Digital Economic Development and Its Impact on Econimic Growth in China: Research Based on the Prespective of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Whitacre, Brian & Gallardo, Roberto, 2020. "State broadband policy: Impacts on availability," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9).
    7. Regmi, Sabina & Kim, Ayoung & Mills, Devon P. & Green, John, 2023. "Meta-analysis of Consumer's willingness to pay for broadband," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335602, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Pender, John & Goldstein, Joshua & Mahoney-Nair, Devika, 2022. "Impacts of the Broadband Initiatives Program on broadband adoption and home telework," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8).
    9. Gao, Yanyan & Zang, Leizhen & Sun, Jun, 2018. "Does computer penetration increase farmers’ income? An empirical study from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 345-360.
    10. Correa, Teresa & Pavez, Isabel & Contreras, Javier, 2017. "Beyond access: A relational and resource-based model of household Internet adoption in isolated communities," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 757-768.
    11. Thai, Do Manh & Falch, Morten, 2018. "Universal service in Vietnam: An institutional approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 323-332.
    12. Mack, Elizabeth A. & Maciejewski, Ross, 2015. "A profile of visual analytical toolkits for understanding the spatio-temporal evolution of broadband provision," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 320-332.
    13. Amir Manzoor, 2014. "Investigating the Factors Affecting Residential Consumer Adoption of Broadband in India," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(4), pages 21582440145, October.
    14. Kenney, Martin & Serhan, Hiam & Trystram, Gilles, 2020. "Digitalization and Platforms in Agriculture: Organizations, Power Asymmetry, and Collective Action Solutions," ETLA Working Papers 78, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    15. Tessa Conroy & Sarah A. Low, 2022. "Entrepreneurship, Broadband, and Gender: Evidence from Establishment Births in Rural America," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 3-35, January.
    16. Srinuan, Chalita & Bohlin, Erik, 2011. "Understanding the digital divide: A literature survey and ways forward," 22nd European Regional ITS Conference, Budapest 2011: Innovative ICT Applications - Emerging Regulatory, Economic and Policy Issues 52191, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    17. Manlove, Jacob & Whitacre, Brian, 2019. "An evaluation of the Connected Nation broadband adoption program," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1-1.
    18. Alessandro Scuderi & Giovanni La Via & Giuseppe Timpanaro & Luisa Sturiale, 2022. "The Digital Applications of “Agriculture 4.0”: Strategic Opportunity for the Development of the Italian Citrus Chain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, March.
    19. Jain, Rekha, 2014. "The Indian broadband plan: A review and implications for theory," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 278-290.
    20. Trkman, Marina & Trkman, Peter, 2014. "Actors’ misaligned interests to explain the low impact of an information system – A case study," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 296-307.

    More about this item

    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:wly:apecpp:v:43:y:2021:i:1:p:458-464. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2040-5804 .

    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.