We build and analyze new metrics of digital usage that leverage telemetry data collected by Microsoft during operating system updates across forty million Windows devices in U.S. households. These measures of US household digital usage are much more comprehensive than those made available through any existing commercial or government survey. We construct representations of devices in ZIP codes and find evidence of significant variation in usage reflecting an urban-rural divide. We also show the existence of substantial disparities in usage even within narrowly defined Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Income and education correlate with these observed differences. These effects are large and suggest digital literacy gaps that extend beyond the availability of essential IT infrastructure at the local level. These findings call for interventions beyond the traditional focus on infrastructure access and address usage and skills development. The indices are made publicly available to support future research.
Authors
Mayana Pereira, Shane Greenstein, Raffaella Sadun, Prasanna Tambe, Lucia Ronchi Darre, Tammy Glazer, Allen Kim, Rahul Dodhia, Juan Lavista Ferres
- Acknowledgements & Disclosure
- The first four authors contributed equally to this work. Raffaella Sadun appreciates funding for her research from Harvard University, Microsoft Corporation, NBER, NSF, Sloan Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation. We thank Dafna Bearson for her helpful comments. All errors are our own. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3386/w32932
- Pages
- 31
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES 1
- THE NEW DIGITAL DIVIDE 1
- Mayana Pereira Shane Greenstein Raffaella Sadun Prasanna Tambe Lucia Ronchi Darre Tammy Glazer Allen Kim Rahul Dodhia Juan Lavista Ferres 1
- Working Paper 32932 httpwww.nber.orgpapersw32932 1
- NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02138 September 2024 1
- Mayana Pereira Microsoft Corportation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 mayana.wanderleymicrosoft.com 2
- Shane Greenstein Technology Operation and Management Morgan Hall 439 Harvard Business School Soldiers Field Boston MA 02163 and NBER sgreensteinhbs.edu 2
- Raffaella Sadun Harvard Business School Soldiers Field Boston MA 02163 and NBER rsadunhbs.edu 2
- Morgan Hall 215 2
- Prasanna Tambe Wharton School University of Pennsylvania 3730 Walnut Street 558 Jon M. Huntsman Hall Philadelphia PA 19104 tambewharton.upenn.edu 2
- Lucia Ronchi Darre Microsoft Corportation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 lronchidarremicrosoft.com 2
- Tammy Glazer tammy.glazermicrosoft.com 2
- Microsoft Corportation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 2
- Allen Kim Microsoft Corportation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 Allen.Kimmicrosoft.com 3
- Rahul Dodhia Microsoft Corportation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 rahul.dodhiamicrosoft.com 3
- Juan Lavista Ferres Microsoft Corportation One Microsoft Way Redmond WA 98052 jlavistamicrosoft.com 3
- Introduction 4
- Media and Informa- 4
- 189 5
- 6 10 6
- 189 6
- Measuring Digital Literacy 6
- 5 11 7
- 1315 9
- Exploring the New Digital Divide 9
- Socio-Economic Correlates of the New Digital Divide 11
- Summary and Implications 14
- Society and the internet How 17
- Information Economics and 17
- Policy 17
- Information Economics and Policy 17
- Telecommunications Policy 17
- Concepts for Classification of Adaptive Instructional Systems 17
- Survey Reports 17
- Telematics and informatics 17
- Handbook of 17
- Pro- 18
- Science 18
- Multidimensional Poverty 18
- Theory 18
- Demography 18
- Information Systems Education Journal 18
- Theory of cryptography conference 18
- Trends in Theoretical Computer Science 18
- Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management 18
- 2016 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal 19
- Processing ICASSP 19
- Supplementary materials 19
- Materials and Methods 21
- IEEE Standard 22
- 1315 22
- Standard for Digital Intelligence 23
- Media and information literacy Content creation and computational literacy 23
- Content creation and computational composite index 23
- 19 20 18 24
- Supplementary Text 27
