Speed of Catch-up and Digital Divide: A Study of Three Information Communication Technologies for 44 African Countries
Journal of Global Information Technology Management https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198X.2020.1792231, Gachon Center of Convergence Research, Working Paper Series, 2019-03
37 Pages Posted: 31 Dec 2019 Last revised: 12 Aug 2020
Date Written: July 12, 2019
Abstract
This paper examines the dynamics of the digital divide between two subgroups of middle-income and low-income African countries in the context of three ICT technologies. During the period of 2000 to 2015, the digital divide has been narrowing faster at the annual rate between 11.3% and 3.53% per year. Furthermore, we used the convergence analysis method to test for the speed of catch-up, and the results shows statistically valid catch-up process in both subgroups in all the three technologies and the low-income subgroups had faster speed of catch-up speed in all cases. When we combined the results from the narrowing digital divide and the speed of catch-up, we discovered that there is a positive relationship in all three technologies, as the narrowing digital divide was also accompanied by a faster catch-up process from lagging countries.
Keywords: Digital Divide, Catch-Up, Sigma Convergence, Gamma Convergence, ICT, ITU
JEL Classification: F60, F64
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation