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Internet Use and Public Programs Participation: Evidence from Chile

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Catalyzing Development through ICT Adoption

Abstract

The interest for ICT-related issues has notably increased in the last decades, leading to a flourishing of studies on their impact on many dimensions. Despite the consensus about the importance of ICT effects at micro level, there is lack of analysis on the existence, magnitude and direction of these effects. This article aims to contribute to the literature by performing an analysis of the relationship between Internet use and information diffusion at household level in Chile. By using data from National Household Surveys, we estimate the effect of Internet use at household level on the probability of obtaining a scholarship for young students in the household. The results suggest that ICT use is significantly and positively correlated with the probability of primary students to be granted by a scholarship program, illustrating how ICT improves communication access and participation in social programs. Given that ICT diffusion is largely determined by socio-economic dimensions, the results also illustrate how ICT could reinforce pre-existing inequalities. This highlights the need for proactive public policies in addressing the digital divide.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of neither the Inter-American Development Bank nor the United Nations. Remaining errors are authors’ exclusive responsibility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, many governments are using ICT, particularly E-government tools, in order to strengthen their openness and transparency [8].

  2. 2.

    However, a similar study evaluated the effect of Internet use on political participation in Belgium, but it cannot establish a clear relation between time spent on the Internet and propensity to participate in public life [10].

  3. 3.

    In the case of Chile, the primary scholarship system is complex and covers a wide range of social and economic issues. Indeed, depending on the program, there are several different facilitations that can be provided to students and families, such as monetary payments, food and housing, among others. Basically, the scholarships can be categorized in two main groups. The first group provides a direct pecuniary assistance of free disposal for families. The second group focuses on student reallocation from isolated geographical areas to areas where there are primary schools, nutrition daily provisions and college-study-essentials support.

  4. 4.

    In order to take into account economies of scale in household consumption and obtain more precise income elasticity, we use an equivalent income measure, which is the total household income divided by the so-called LIS (Luxembourg Income Studies) equivalence scale. It is defined as the square root of the number of household members [21].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, USA

    Matteo Grazzi

  2. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York, NY, USA

    Sebastian Vergara

Authors
  1. Matteo Grazzi
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  2. Sebastian Vergara
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matteo Grazzi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Hamdard University, New Delhi, India

    Harleen Kaur

  2. Faculty of Management and Economics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland

    Ewa Lechman

  3. Faculty of Management and Economics, Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk, Poland

    Adam Marszk

Appendices

Appendix 12.1. Internet and Scholarship Attainment: Basic Statistics of Independent Variables (Estimation Sample; Obs. = 78,623)

Variables

Mean

Stand. error

95% Conf. interval

Household income

12.0852

0.0036

12.0712

12.1113

Household education

9.9818

0.0051

9.9801

9.9910

Family size

5.0490

0.0074

5.0351

5.0642

Rural

0.3822

0.0020

0.4809

0.4894

Head

0.2213

0.0017

0.2178

0.2249

Female

0.4851

0.0021

0.4809

04894

Internet 1

0.3857

0.0034

0.3702

0.3798

Internet 2

0.1071

0.0005

0.1060

0.1081

  1. Source: Author’s elaboration based on Chilean National Household Surveys 2006 and 2009

Appendix 12.2. Internet and Scholarship Attainment: Correlation Matrix of Estimation Independent Variables

Variables

Household

Household education

Family size

Rural

Head

Female

Internet 1

Internet 2

Household income

1

       

Household education

0.399*

1

      

Family size

−0.138*

0.009*

1

     

Rural

−0.186*

−0.274*

−0.003

1

    

Head

−0.103*

−0.011*

−0.042*

−0.090*

1

   

Female

−0.006

0.000

0.002

0.003

0.003

1

  

Internet 1

0.159*

0.137*

−0.037*

−0.172*

−0.004

0.001

1

 

Internet 2

0.179*

0.115*

−0.266*

−0.159*

0.041*

−0.000

0.896*

1

  1. Source: Author’s elaboration based on Chilean National Household Surveys 2006 and 2009. *Significant at 5%

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Grazzi, M., Vergara, S. (2017). Internet Use and Public Programs Participation: Evidence from Chile. In: Kaur, H., Lechman, E., Marszk, A. (eds) Catalyzing Development through ICT Adoption. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56523-1_12

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