Digital inequality in Austria: Empirical evidence from the survey of the OECD "Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies"

Abstract

Digitisation and rapidly emerging new technologies are transforming many aspects of life such as education, work, and leisure. These changes lead to a growing demand for new skills related to ICT use, computer literacy, internet use, or technical digital skills. However, the extensive literature on digital inequality provides evidence for significant differences in computer skills along the usual dimensions of social inequality. Due to the omnipresence of digital technologies in everyday life, it is all the more important to know the extent of digital inequality to be able to take appropriate measures to ensure that social participation does not degenerate into a question of social stratification in the Digital Age. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence for socio-economic digital inequality in Austria using survey data from the “Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies” (PIAAC) conducted in 2011/2012.1 We show, for Austria, that higher socio-economic background is positively related to digital problem-solving while being female is negatively correlated. However, when controlling for ICT engagement in everyday life, the positive effect of the socio-economic background only remains significant for groups of people with a very high socio-economic background while the effect of gender becomes statistically insignificant. Furthermore, based on Eurostat data we cannot identify a uniform trend towards a decline of digital inequality since 2012. Our results indicate that disadvantaged population groups in Austria should be encouraged and enabled to integrate ICT usage in their everyday life to reduce digital inequality.