| dc.description.abstract | This thesis attempts to explore the factors of Internet diffusion in Asian countries, high-income countries of Asia and low-income countries. At the same time, also consider the impact of socio-economic development, open government policies and social resources on the digital divide.
The empirical research is for the Asian Productivity Organization (APO: Asian Productivity Organization) of 20 countries plus China, total 21 Asian countries. This is a research for the period 2000 - 2005. The raw data used are taken from the ＂ITU (International Telecommunication Union) ICT Statistics Database website＂ and ＂World Development Bank (The World Bank; WDI) 2007 Indicators site＂. This thesis adopts panel data estimation methods, including Pooling data, the fixed effect and the random effect technique. Hausman test is used to determine the appropriate estimation method in the empirical study.
The empirical results are listed as follows.
1. For the whole of Asia, opening up the broadband market and telephone penetration rate, mobile phone penetration rate have a significant positive impact on Internet diffusion. Population density has a significantly negative impact.
2. For low-income Asian countries, opening up the broadband market and telephone penetration rate, mobile phone penetration rate have a significant positive impact on Internet diffusion. Population density has a negative impact.
3. For Asian high-income countries, whether or not to participate in the World Trade Organization, the number of personal computers, the Internet host penetration rate, mobile phones penetration rate and population density have a significant positive impact on Internet diffusion. The gross national product and telephone penetration rate have a significantly negative impact. | en_US |