Arbeitspapier
Surfing Alone? The Internet and Social Capital: Evidence from an Unforeseen 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 measuresincluding children's social activities, we even find significant positive effects.
- Sprache
-
Englisch
- Erschienen in
-
Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 392
- Klassifikation
-
Wirtschaft
Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- Thema
-
Internet
social capital
Internet
Breitbandkommunikation
Social Web
Sozialkapital
Soziale Beziehungen
Deutschland
Ostdeutschland
- Ereignis
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (wer)
-
Bauernschuster, Stefan
Falck, Oliver
Wößmann, Ludger
- Ereignis
-
Veröffentlichung
- (wer)
-
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
- (wo)
-
Berlin
- (wann)
-
2011
- Handle
- Letzte Aktualisierung
-
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ
Datenpartner
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.
Objekttyp
- Arbeitspapier
Beteiligte
- Bauernschuster, Stefan
- Falck, Oliver
- Wößmann, Ludger
- Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
Entstanden
- 2011