nep-ict New Economics Papers
on Information and Communication Technologies
Issue of 2015‒02‒11
six papers chosen by
Walter Frisch
Universität Wien

  1. Investigating outcomes of online engagement By Alexander van Deursen; Jan van Dijk; Ellen Helsper
  2. A Bayesian nonparametric modelling to estimate student response to ICT investment By Stefano Cabras; Juan de Dios Tena
  3. The governance of communication networks: reconsidering the research agenda By Robin Mansell
  4. Long Tails in the Tourism Industry: Towards Knowledge Intensive Service Suppliers By Christian Longhi; Sylvie Rochhia
  5. Here be startups: exploring a young digital cluster in inner East London By Max Nathan; Emma Vandore
  6. Money and privacy: Android market evidence By Kummer, Michael; Schulte, Patrick

  1. By: Alexander van Deursen; Jan van Dijk; Ellen Helsper
    Abstract: So far, digital divide research and policy was primarily engaged with access to computers and the Internet. The results of having access to these digital media were neglected. This article focuses on the tangible outcomes of online access and activity. There have been few attempts to measure such outcomes. With respect to digital inclusion, the most interesting question is who actually benefits from being online. This article answers this question by the results of a representative survey of the Dutch population in 2013. Internet outcomes and benefits are framed in concepts of participation in several domains of society: economic, social, educational, political and institutional. The results show that the same social categories having more access to the Internet also have more outcomes or benefits from Internet use: people with high education and income and young people. Outcomes in fact are the essence or stake of the digital divide. This study shows that some categories of the Dutch population benefit substantially more than others by using the Internet in finding a job, lower prices of products and services, better opportunities of education, a political party to vote for, new friends, a partner in dating and other outcomes.
    JEL: L91 L96
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:59994&r=ict
  2. By: Stefano Cabras; Juan de Dios Tena
    Abstract: This paper estimates the causal impact of investment in information andcommunication technologies (ICT) on student performances in mathematics asmeasured in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 for Spain.To do this we apply a new methodology in this context known as Bayesian AdditiveRegression Trees (BART) that has important advantages over more standardparametric specifications. Results indicate that ICT has a moderate positive effect onmath scores. In addition, we analyze how this effect interacts with variables related toschool features and student socioeconomic status, finding that ICT investment isespecially beneficial for students from a low socioeconomic background.
    Keywords: Regression trees, Causality, ICT, Bayesian Statistics, BART
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wsrepe:ws143020&r=ict
  3. By: Robin Mansell
    JEL: L91 L96
    Date: 2014–06–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:56557&r=ict
  4. By: Christian Longhi (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis; GREDEG-CNRS); Sylvie Rochhia (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis; GREDEG-CNRS)
    Abstract: This paper analyses the effects of the Internet on the organizations and the markets in the tourism industry. It enlightens its deepening impact on incumbent organizations and markets from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 though the analysis of the dynamics of the long tail, i.e. of the distribution of activities in tourism. Innovation is gone from exploitation to exploration of the long tail, towards the emergence of non-profit or for-profit Knowledge Intensive Service Suppliers allowing 'prosumers' to find solutions to run themselves their activities, through users generated resources. Contrasting results appear, the growing autonomy of the tail from the head of distribution in the tourism industry, i.e. the development of global innovative market places inside the long tail itself, but still the reemergence of power laws, of tails within the tails as the basic shapes of activities in this platform economy. Skewed distributions appear indeed as the 'normal' characteristic of the economic activity, the traditional market one as well as the so-called 'sharing' one, which stands as a new form of the globalization.
    Keywords: Tourism, Knowledge Intensive Service Suppliers, Sectoral Systems of Innovation and Production, Long Tail, Organization of the Industry, Internet
    JEL: L83 L86 L31 O33
    Date: 2015–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2015-07&r=ict
  5. By: Max Nathan; Emma Vandore
    Abstract: The digital industries cluster known as 'Silicon Roundabout' has been quietly growing in East London since the 1990s. Now rebranded 'Tech City', it is now the focus of huge public and government attention. National and local policymakers wish to accelerate the local area's development: such cluster policies are back in vogue as part of a re-awakened interest in industrial policy in many developed countries. Surprisingly little is known about Tech City's firms or the wider ecosystem, however, and existing cluster policies have a high failure rate. This paper performs a detailed mixed-methods analysis, combining rich enterprise-level data with semi-structured interviews. We track firm and employment growth from 1997-2010 and identify a number of distinctive features: branching from creative to digital content industries, street-level sorting of firms, the importance of local amenities and a lack of conventional cluster actors such as universities or anchor businesses. We also argue that the existing policy mix embodies a number of tensions, and suggest areas for improvement.
    Keywords: digital economy; cities; clusters; innovation; London; silicon roundabout; tech city
    JEL: L2 L52 M13 O18 O31 R11
    Date: 2013–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:58424&r=ict
  6. By: Kummer, Michael; Schulte, Patrick
    Abstract: We study the role of privacy in the market for mobile applications. For such programs used with smartphones and tablet PCs a very important market has emerged. Yet, neither the role of privacy on that market is well understood, nor do we have empirical evidence regarding its role therein. We exploit data on 300,000 mobile applications and almost 600 "applications-pairs" to analyze both sides of this market: First, we analyze the price that application suppliers charge for more privacy. Second, we study how users' installations are related to the "personal data greediness" of mobile applications. We provide the first empirical evidence on the main assumptions of recent early models on suppliers' and consumers' strategies in this market. Our results show that (1) consumers take it into account when applications request rights to collect private information and (2) suppliers ask for more rights if they offer an app for free than if they offer it for a fee.
    Keywords: Information Acquisition,Mobile Applications,Smartphones,Online Privacy,Permissions,Price,Privacy Regulation
    JEL: D4 D83 L15
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14131&r=ict

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