Ana Jesús López Menéndez

A multivariate framework for the analysis of the digital divide: evidence for the European Union-15

Our research was initiated in an attempt to analyse the digital gap between nations. With this aim, we approached the measurement of digital disparities between countries by means of multivariate statistical methods. In particular we used factor and cluster analysis to obtain a classification of the levels of digital development. This framework was applied to the European Union (EU) before its last increase in number of nations. The analysis led to the identification of two factors and four groups of countries in the EU, showing asymmetry in the development of the information society.

Assessing Changes Over Time in Inequality of Opportunity: The Case of Spain

The aim of this paper is to contribute both theoretically and empirically to the analysis of Inequality of Opportunity over time, providing some significant findings referred to the Spanish case. The analysis is carried out using microdata collected by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which incorporate a wide variety of personal harmonised variables, allowing comparability with other countries. The availability of this database for the period 2004 and 2010 is particularly relevant for assessing changes over time in the main inequality indices and the contribution of circumstances to inequality of opportunity. We find that the effect of circumstances on income distribution has significantly intensified between the two years. To test the significance of the differences between years we perform bootstrap estimations.