The Effect of Content on Global Internet Adoption (with Nicholas Economides)
 
Abstract
 
The availability of Internet access is considered important for economic productivity and a well-informed citizenry. It is therefore critical to understand the determinants of Internet adoption. In this paper, we test the effect of content availability on Internet adoption across countries. Controlling for the endogeneity of content with respect to the installed base of Internet users and a range of factors known to affect adoption, we find a statistically and economically significant effect. Although below the effect of per-capita GDP, content’s effect is similar to or above that of telephone infrastructure, income equality, population density, primary school enrollment, and degree of civil liberties. Estimating cross-country adoption regressions, we find that a country one standard deviation above the mean level of accessible content has an Internet adoption rate at least 16% higher than the mean country in the sample. We also find evidence that content has a greater effect in countries with more disparate languages consistent with use of the Internet to overcome linguistic isolation. Since content is more easily altered in the short-term than many economic conditions or infrastructure, our results have ramifications for the diffusion of the Internet and the consequent impact on economic development and access to information.

CV:Files/viardcv.pdf