Factors that Impact Internet Use and are Sensitive to Income: Cross-Country Empirical Evidence
Factors that Impact Internet Use and are Sensitive to Income: Cross-Country Empirical Evidence

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines information and communication technology (ICT) and socioeconomic indicators associated with Internet use based on income level across countries. Although some literature deals with cross-country indicators of Internet use, no known study quantitatively examines which indicators are superior or how they differ across countries with different income level. We extract factors with the most important indicators and evaluate their impact on Internet use for four income groups: low, lower middle, upper middle, and high. The results show that Internet use can be stimulated by educated people, available computers, telecommunications connections and increasing income per capita. However, prices of telecommunications services, international trade, investment, population density, unemployment rate or GDP growth rate do not affect Internet use.

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