Abstract
Although economic factors account for the digital divide, the effect of economic insecurity on information communication technology (ICT) access has not been determined. The market-oriented reform of Chinese state-owned enterprises in the 1990s resulted in massive layoffs, encouraging us to investigate the relationship between economic insecurity and the digital divide. We draw on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). To handle the endogeneity related to economic insecurity, we use experience in a management position and the number of siblings as instruments for economic insecurity. With the introduction of these two instrumental variables, we find a negative relationship between economic insecurity and ICT access. This study provides insight into ICT policies involving underprivileged people in developing countries.
Highlights
Economic Insecurity and Digital Divide. e digital divide is divided into three degrees: access to IT, ability to use IT, and outcomes of the use of IT [1], and economic factors are a major source of the digital divide
[15], high-income or low-income countries [16], and communities with rich or poor facilities are related to digital access [3]. erefore, they contribute to the digital divide and account for the structural inequality in digital access
The F-value of the private-owned enterprises (POEs) model is 1.34, and the relationship between siblings and POEs is not significant, indicating that the endogeneity of POEs cannot be eliminated via the instrumental variables (IVs); the different role of IVs can be explained by the variance in features between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and POEs that we mentioned above. erefore, SOEs are a more appropriate proxy variable to measure economic insecurity
Summary
Economic capacity (e.g., income and wealth) has been considered a major determinant of the digital divide [11, 14]. Other economic factors such as living in rural or urban areas. COVID-19 as a potential source of economic insecurity (e.g., lockdown policy, social distance, and unemployment) has raised concerns because of its effect on digital access [17,18,19]. E forward-looking perspective emphasizes that economic insecurity is related to future financial risk; for instance, involuntary layoffs reduce income in the future. Because of the underdeveloped social safety net in that period, leaving the self-sufficient community equaled high economic insecurity
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
