Fixed Broadband Internet Access as an Indicator of Social Inequality in Panama
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15517/76x3av71Keywords:
Digital divide, Social inequality, Internet , Panama, Digital exclusionAbstract
Introduction: The study from which this article derives originated in an inquiry into the digital divide within a line of research linking it to social inequality, taking Panama — a high-income country with marked levels of inequality — as its case study.
Objective: To explore the relationship between digital and social inequality in Panama through the development of an original methodology that analyzes the results of an annually conducted, nationally representative, in-person survey incorporating material variables associated with socioeconomic well-being, as an alternative approach to address the absence of official data on access to digital technologies.
Methodology: Descriptive statistical tools were employed alongside multivariate statistical techniques to construct a descriptive and confirmatory method as a probabilistic procedure for validating the findings. Results. The application of this method revealed that access to fixed broadband internet in the household represents the greatest divide between the segments of the population with the highest and lowest degrees of social vulnerability.
Conclusion: The unavailability of fixed broadband internet in households is identified and confirmed as a marker of social inequality; accordingly, the study underscores the urgency of refining census questions to enable differentiation of household broadband subscription status, thereby allowing for a more precise characterization of its relationship with socioeconomic and demographic indicators.
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