Digital inequality: A five country comparison using microdata

This study examines patterns and determinants of information technology (IT) usage in five countries: the U.S., Sweden, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. We focus on cross-country differences in IT access and use across sex, age, education and income groups. We examine how any such differences have evolved over time. Our results indicate that there are differences in IT usage in all five countries, but gaps tend to be more prevalent in the three Asian nations than in the U.S. and Sweden. Our findings generally suggest that differences in IT usage along demographic and socioeconomic dimensions reflect the extent of differences in other areas of the economy and society.