An approximation to the digital divide among low income people in Colombia, Mexico and Perú: two composite indexes

This study examines the determinants of information and communications technology(ICT) use and access of low-income people in three developing countries: Colombia,Mexico and Peru. We focus on cross-country differences and similarities in ICTs use acrossgender, age, education and income, using two composite indicators of ICT. The mainsimilarity across the countries is that education is by far the single most important factorlimiting the digitalization of low-income people. The impact of income was low althoughpositive. There is not apparently a gender gap in Colombia and Mexico but one in Peru.Our findings also suggest that when using a composite indicator that only include the`advanced ICTs´, disadvantage people among the low-income people can be moreconstrained in the use and access of more advanced information and communicationstechnologies.****El estudio analiza los determinantes de uso y acceso a las tecnologías de información ycomunicación en personas de bajos ingresos en pasases como Colombia, México y Perú. Elpunto central esta en analizar las diferencias entre países de acuerdo a diferentes variablessocioeconómicas. Se encuentra que la variable que más explica el nivel de acceso digital esla escolaridad. De otro lado no se encuentra una brecha por género sino en Perú. Losresultados también indican que cuando solo se tienen en cuenta las tecnologías más`avanzadas´, las diferencias entre la población son más notorias.Digital divide, ICT, gender gap, Internet

Differences in Information and Computer Technology by Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Age

This literature review will evaluate how information and computer technology (ICT) use differs by socio-economic status, gender, and age in social science research. After an introductory section, each of the three independent variables will be introduced and the findings within the literature pertaining to each variable will be discussed. As part of that discussion, I will also compare results cross-nationally to determine if significant relationships related to use are consistent across nations. Since a majority of the articles reviewed are quantitative in nature, most of my review will discuss each variable\u27s statistical significance and whether it has a positive or negative relationship with ICT use. However, qualitative research is also represented in the literature, particularly in the area of gender, thus the quality of information and computer technology use will also be discussed. This review concludes with a summary of the findings, its limitations, and suggestions for future research

ICT in Latin America: A Microdata Analysis

This book is the final report of the ECLAC-IDRC project Observatory for the Information Society in Latin American and the Caribbean (OSILAC), Third Phase”. OSILAC III is a cooperating project between the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Division of Production, Productivity and Management, ECLAC-UN, which aims at understanding the dynamics of the ICT evolution and revolution and producing evidence on its potential to support socio-economic development, particularly in developing countries. As such, microdata analysis drawn from National Household Surveys and National Innovation Surveys in Latin America were used in the framework of the project in the attempt to reach those objectives Both statistical information sources provide attractive potentialities in order to investigate not only determinants of innovation activities and technology diffusion, but also its economic impacts.ICT, Innovation, Productivity

ICT access in Latin America. evidence from household level

The diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is becoming a central policy issue for developing countries, being identified by international policy-makers and scholars as an important driver of knowledge, innovation and economic growth. We analyze ICT access patterns in seven Latin American countries. In particular, we study the socio-economic determinants of the presence of computers and Internet connection at household level. Descriptive data show that ICT diffusion is concentrated in narrowly defined segments of income and educational groups in each country. Across countries, there is also evidence that the lower is the ICT diffusion, the higher is the inequality of that diffusion. Econometrically, we model the probability that a household has or has not adopted computer technologies and Internet access. The results confirm that variables such as income, education and rural/urban areas are key determinants of ICT diffusion. Additionally, there is evidence of geographical network effects and complementarities between Internet uses at different locations.ICT Access, Sample selection, Latin America

The Determinants of the Global Mobile Telephone Deployment: An Empirical Analysis

This study aims to analyze the global mobile phones by examining the instruments stimulating the diffusion pattern. A rigorous demand model is estimated using global mobile telecommu-nications panel dataset comprised with 51 countries classified in order to World Bank income categories from 1990-2007. In particular, the paper examines what factors contribute the most to the deployment of global mobile telephones. To construct an econometric model, the number of subscribers to mobile phone per 100 inhabitants is taken as dependent variable, while the following groups of variables (1) GDP per capita income and charges, (2) competition policies (3) telecom infrastructure (4) technological innovations (5) others are selected as independent variables. Estimation results report the presence of substantial disparity among groups. Additionally GDP per capita income and own-price elasticity comprised with call rate, subscription charges, are reported. The analysis of impulse responses for price, competition policies, and technological innovations such as digitalization of mobile network, mobile network coverage indicates that substantial mobile telephone growth is yet to be realized especially in developing countries. A new and important empirical finding is that there are still many opportunities available for mobile phone development in the world pro-poor nations by providing better telecom infrastructure.Mobile Phone Adoption, 3G, Technological Innovations, Competition Policy, Panel Data Analysis, Digital Divide

Colombian business and logistics environment by the year 2020

This thesis aimed to provide information on Colombia’s business and trading environment for companies interested in the market. The main focus of the analysis was on logistics performance. To put Colombia’s business and logistics environment in perspective, its performance was compared with that of its Latin American peers. An important concept for the context of this thesis is trade and transport facilitation (TTF), which means improving efficiency and reducing costs of moving goods across borders. This notion as well as indicators for assessing countries’ TTF performance are introduced in the theoretical framework. Also, studies on determinants of logistics performance are reviewed. Two types of factors were identified to affect countries’ logistics performance: infrastructure and institutional quality. These two types of indicators were used in the analysis of this thesis. The research approach selected for this study is descriptive and qualitative, as the objective was to create a comprehensive description of the Colombian business environment. The analysis consists of an outlook on Colombia’s economy and transport sector as well as on TTF performance in international evaluations. The research data included reports, statistics, and international rankings. The research framework is unique because it combines a transport sector analysis with a greater number of TTF indicators than seen in previous studies. The analysis covering data till the year 2020 showed that despite being ranked as one of the best business environments in Latin America, Colombia’s competitiveness is hindered by poor road and railway infrastructure, border management issues, corruption and insecurity. In turn, connectedness by air and sea as well as seaport infrastructure are very good. The US market is easily reached by air. Colombia enjoys the advantage of having access to both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It also has an extensive system of navigable rivers. However, port infrastructure in the Pacific is underdeveloped and rivers are currently not used at their full potential. Significant infrastructure projects have been planned for the 2020s, including increasing the cargo capacity of the rivers and developing inactive railways to create efficient intermodal transport corridors.Työn tarkoitus oli antaa Kolumbian markkinoista kiinnostuneille yrityksille tietoa maan liiketoimintaympäristöstä erityisesti logistiikan näkökulmasta. Jotta Kolumbiaa voitaisiin tarkastella kontekstissaan, maata verrattiin latinalaisamerikkalaisiin verrokkimaihin. Aiheen kannalta merkittävä käsite on trade and transport facilitation (TTF) eli kansainvälisen kaupan ja kuljetusten edistäminen, millä tarkoitetaan rajat ylittävien kuljetusten tehokkuuden parantamista ja kustannusten pienentämistä. Tämä käsite sekä valtioiden edistymistä alalla arvioivat mittarit ovat pääosassa työn teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä. Lisäksi tarkastellaan aiempia tutkimuksia logistiikan suorituskyvystä. Tutkimuskirjallisuudesta voitiin tunnistaa kaksi tekijää, jotka vaikuttavat maiden logistiikan suorituskykyyn: kuljetusinfrastruktuuri ja instituutiot. Näiden tekijöiden laatua mittaavia indikaattoreita käytettiin tässä tutkimuksessa liiketoiminta- ja logistiikkaympäristön analysoimiseen. Tutkimusote on deskriptiivinen ja kvalitatiivinen, sillä tavoite oli laatia yksityiskohtainen kuvaus Kolumbian liiketoimintaympäristöstä logistiikan näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen viitekehys on ainutlaatuinen, sillä Kolumbian ja verrokkimaiden arvioinnissa käytettiin useampia TTF-mittareita kuin aiemmissa tutkimuksissa. Lisäksi analyysia täydennettiin tarkemmalla katsauksella Kolumbian kuljetussektoriin. Tutkimusaineistona käytettiin lähinnä kansainvälisten järjestöjen ja Kolumbian ministeriöiden laatimia tilastoja, arviointityökaluja ja raportteja. Valtaosa tutkimusaineistosta ulottuu vuoteen 2020. Vaikka Kolumbian liiketoimintaympäristö on Latinalaisen Amerikan parhaita, maan heikkouksia ovat maantie- ja rautatieinfrastruktuuri, tullimuodollisuudet, korruptio ja rikollisuus. Lento- ja meriliikenneyhteydet sekä satamainfrastruktuuri sitä vastoin ovat ensiluokkaisia. Yhdysvaltain markkinat ovat nopeiden lentoyhteyksien päässä. Kolumbialla on etunaan myös sekä Atlantille että Tyynellemerelle ulottuva rannikko ja laaja jokiverkosto. Tyynenmeren puoleinen infrastruktuuri on kuitenkin puutteellinen eikä jokien tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia ole täysin hyödynnetty. Mittavia projekteja on kuitenkin suunniteltu toteutettavaksi 2020-luvulla, kuten jokien kuljetuskapasiteetin lisääminen sekä käytöstä poistettujen rautatieosuuksien käyttöönotto intermodaalikuljetusten tehostamiseksi

Empirical Study of Digital Poverty: A Case Study of a University of Technology in South Africa

Published ArticleThis research evaluates the availability and use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by students from disadvantaged and privileged families studying Computer Science at a University of Technology in South Africa. A questionnaire was distributed to a stratified random sample of 50 first- and 20 thirdyear students. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and present the results of the study. The results suggested that a low level of education is associated with digitally poor people. Results of the research also proposed that men had more opportunities of using ICTs than women. The more economically poor a family was, the more digital poor it was. The research also showed that living in the rural areas seems to decrease the probability of being (more) digitalized. The results of the study were later used to create a framework for assessing the degree of ICT usage and to group the population into digital poverty levels

The global information technology report 2014

Executive summary When The Global Information Technology Report (GITR) and the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) were created more than 13 years ago, the attention of decision makers was focused on how to develop strategies that would allow them to benefit from what Time Magazine had described as “the new economy”: a new way of organizing and managing economic activity based on the new opportunities that the Internet provided for businesses. At present, the world is slowly emerging from one of the worst financial and economic crises in decades, and policymakers, business leaders, and civil society are looking into new opportunities that can consolidate growth, generate new employment, and create business opportunities. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) continue to rank high on the list as one of the key sources of new opportunities to foster innovation and boost economic and social prosperity, for both advanced and emerging economies. For more than 13 years, the NRI has provided decision makers with a useful conceptual framework to evaluate the impact of ICTs at a global level and to benchmark the ICT readiness and usage of their economies

ICT in Latin America: A Microdata Analysis

This book is the final report of the ECLAC-IDRC project Observatory for the Information Society in Latin American and the Caribbean (OSILAC), Third Phase”. OSILAC III is a cooperating project between the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Division of Production, Productivity and Management, ECLAC-UN, which aims at understanding the dynamics of the ICT evolution and revolution and producing evidence on its potential to support socio-economic development, particularly in developing countries. As such, microdata analysis drawn from National Household Surveys and National Innovation Surveys in Latin America were used in the framework of the project in the attempt to reach those objectives Both statistical information sources provide attractive potentialities in order to investigate not only determinants of innovation activities and technology diffusion, but also its economic impacts

Expanding Access and Increasing Student Learning in Post-Primary Education in Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence

Effective, evidence-based policies on post-primary education are of vital importance as many developing countries start to the see a bulge in secondary and postsecondary enrollment, the product of the achievement of near-universal access to primary school. Finding ways to deliver and promote access to high-quality post-primary education, and to ensure that education is relevant to labor market needs, is one of the great challenges of our times. This must be accomplished in countries where governments face severe budget constraints and many, of not most, parents are too poor to cover the costs out of pocket.International reports such as "A Global Compact on Learning", by the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, emphasize providing opportunities for post-primary education as a first-tier policy challenge. In addition, there has been considerably less progress in gender parity at the secondary level. Meeting these challenges will require a combination of using existing resources more effectively -- which requires both understanding which inputs are key and which are not -- and a range of innovations that may fundamentally alter the current methods of instruction. To that end, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) has launched a Post-Primary Education Initiative intended to promote policy-relevant research on secondary and post-secondary education in developing countries, which together will be referred to as post-primary education. This paper is a first step in that process. It reviews the evidence to date on post-primary education and highlight the gaps in the literature, with a focus on identifying policies that should be given the highest priority for future researchDifferent countries define primary and secondary schooling differently, and in many countries students attend middle schools, upper primary schools, or junior secondary schools before attending secondary school. For the purpose of this review, "post-primary education" includes everything from upper primary, middle, or junior secondary school through tertiary education, as defined by the local context in different countries, including vocational school and other alternative tracks for this age group. In practice, this means that in the research reviewed, the majority of children are in 5th grade (i.e. 10-11 years old) and older.The review is organized as follows. Section II provides some background on postprimary education in the developing world. Section III explains how papers were selected for this review. Section IV presents a conceptual framework for thinking about postprimary education (PPE), including a brief discussion of measuring outcomes. Section V reviews the evidence pertaining to the demand for schooling (the impact of policies that attempt to increase the willingness of households to send their children to school), and Section VI reviews the evidence on the supply of schooling (the impact of policies that change school and teacher characteristics, and more generally how schools are organized). A final section summarizes the findings, highlighting several research gaps that should receive high priority in future research