Analysis of Internet development and internal digital divide by using the “.it” domain names as an indicator: Evidence from Italy

Abstract

Information Technology is important in daily life, especially was in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, even in this period the phenomenon of the digital divide (dd) emerges. This research moves in this direction, studying the evolution of the Internet use in Italy, in three different macro-areas, in more recent times (from 1996 to 2022). To provide a rigorous quantitative approach of the internal dd, different statistical models of diffusion, in particular Logistic, Gompertz and Bass models have been used. In order to analyse the diffusion of the Internet and internal digital divide, the number of “.it “domain names were used as an indicator. From the comparison of the three statistical models applied, resulted that the Internet diffusion in the North is very developed compared to the Centre and South, and although the Centre and the North have a similar trend, the diffusion process is slower in the South. This confirmed the presence of an internal digital divide. A particular result arising from the application of Bass model is that, in Italy, potential users of the Internet are mostly “imitators” with respect to “innovators”. Furthermore, results show the presence of two imitator areas with different behaviors: the imitator area with higher income adopts technology faster, reaching in some times the same levels of Internet penetration of the innovative area and the point of inflection of the diffusion curve less than one year earlier than the innovative area and almost two years earlier than the imitator area with low income. However, the results show that in the long term the North (the area where the innovation coefficient is highest) continues to differentiate itself from the Centre and the South, increasing rather than decreasing the dd. This study can be useful to policymakers in order to take measures to overcome the dd, even in an industrialized country like Italy.