Arbeitspapier
Surfing alone? The Internet and social capital ; evidence from an unforeseeable technological mistake
Does the Internet undermine social capital or facilitate inter-personal and civic engagement in the real world? Merging unique telecommunication data with geo-coded German individual-level data, we investigate how broadband Internet affects several dimensions of social capital. One identification strategy uses panel information to estimate value-added models. A second exploits a quasi-experiment in East Germany created by a mistaken technology choice of the state-owned telecommunication provider in the 1990s that still hinders broadband Internet access for many households. We find no evidence that the Internet reduces social capital. For some measures including children's social activities, we even find significant positive effects.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5747
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- Subject
-
Internet
social capital
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Bauernschuster, Stefan
Falck, Oliver
Woessmann, Ludger
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2011
- Handle
- URN
-
urn:nbn:de:101:1-201106202002
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET
Data provider
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Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Bauernschuster, Stefan
- Falck, Oliver
- Woessmann, Ludger
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2011
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