The digital divide among households in Turkey

The change and transformation of the relationship between humans and technology affect all fields of life. In particular, due to the Covid-19 epidemic, which has also been effective in Turkey since March 2020, distance education and home-office implementation have revealed the importance of the digital divide between households. In this context, identifying the technological sufficiency level of households and the factors affecting the digital divide is crucial in increasing the effectiveness of the policies. The study aims to determine the effect of socio-economic factors affecting the digital divide among households in Turkey. In the study, these effects were investigated through the TurkStat Household Budget Survey (HBA) 2018 data applying the Generalized Ordered Logit Model. In the analysis, first, the technological sufficiency index of the households was created with the help of the principal components method. Then the effects of socioeconomic variables such as age, gender, education level, presence of dependent children, housing ownership, and income, which are thought to affect the digital divide, were examined. The most important finding from the analysis results is that gender, age, and income have serious effects on the digital divide between households.