Relationship between the E-Government Development Index and the digital divide by age of internet use in Ecuador.

Abstract

The objective of this research is to determine the relationship between the E-Government Development Index (EGDI) and the digital divide by age of internet use in Ecuador; materials and methods: This is an analytical, longitudinal, retrospective and observational study, considering as a source of information the historical series of the United Nations (UN) on Electronic Government (UNeGovKB), as well as the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), the main variables were the Electronic Government Development Index (EGDI) and its three components, internet use disaggregated by age, among others; Correlation analysis was used to determine the linear relationship between the variables, establishing significance if p-value<0.05; results and discussion: The GDI has grown linearly from 0.378 in 2003 to 0.613 in 2018, of the three components of the GDI the only one that decreased was the Human Capital Index (HCI); household internet access increased linearly from 7.04% in 2008 to 37.20% in 2017; internet use in Ecuador shows a clear digital divide by age, for 2017 the percentage of internet use was higher in the population aged 16 to 34 years (79.34) and 35 to 54 years (51.22), while people aged 55 years did not reach 15%; the GDI presented positive linear relationship with the percentage of households with internet access, as well as with the percentage of people between the ages of 35 to 54 years and older or equal to 55 years. Conclusions: Despite the growth of the GDI its Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (TII) component, although it has presented a linear growth, it is still low, the ICH contributes more to the calculation of the GDI but this shows a tendency to decrease; there is a digital divide in internet access, however it presents a direct linear relationship with GDI, TII, IPE and an indirect linear relationship with ICH; the internet usage gap by age is somewhat notable, however, this age group is positively related to GDI, ISL, ITT and IPE as it demands more electronic services from the public administration, as does the 35-54 age group.