The ICT Development Index and the digital divide: How are they related?

摘要

Digital preparedness and the digital divide are two ways of measuring ICT performance across countries. Recently, the ITU has proposed that a new index of preparedness be used to measure the divide. My goal is to investigate the validity of this suggestion. I have argued that the ICT Development Index is ill-suited to this task because it engages in double-counting, confuses means and ends, adds together dependent and independent variables and adds rather than multiplies its component parts.