Addressing the digital divide: The economic case for increasing digital inclusion
NZIER report to the Digital Council for Aotearoa June 2022
This paper was prepared at NZIER by Olivia Wills and Philippa Miller Moore. It was quality approved by Todd Krieble. The assistance of Ria Earp, Atawhai Tibble, Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell, Anna Brown, Colin Gavaghan, Paula White, Tessa Houghton, Gill Palmer, Michael Bealing, Bill Kaye-Blake and Sarah Spring is gratefully acknowledged.
We live in a world where our work and lives are increasingly digital – but we are not all experiencing the benefits Technological progress has accelerated over the past decades, changing the lives of those who can access and use digital and data technologies. These technologies give us immediate real-time information, help us stay connected and provide opportunities to learn new skills. These benefits span our work, finances, home, community and social lives. But not everyone is digitally included, and as many people’s daily lives are increasingly transformed through digital technologies, those who are ‘under-included’1 are increasingly left behind. The impacts of this digital under-inclusion are not only significant for New Zealand’s society and economy but are particularly acute for those people and communities most affected. Digital under-inclusion is both a function of, and contributor to, social and economic exclusion by reducing access to services, social and community connections, education and work. Those with internet access tend to have higher wellbeing and richer social capital outcomes (for example, voting) than those without access (Grimes and White 2019). In Aotearoa New Zealand, those more likely to be affected by digital under-inclusion due to not having internet in the home fall largely into two groups. The first group, those in single- person households without internet, are more likely to be older and New Zealand European and have roughly the same income as their counterparts with home internet. The second group, those in multi-person households without the internet, are more likely to be Pacific peoples or Māori in crowded households (which frequently include children) and have lower income. Other (in some cases, overlapping) groups that are at risk of digital under-inclusion include disabled people, people living in social housing and those with low housing stability, migrants and refugees with English as a second language, people living in rural locations, unemployed people and those not actively seeking work.
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