Young people and the digital divide in Egypt: an empirical study

This paper uses the ordered probit model to empirically assess the determinants of the digital divide in Egypt. A sample of 15,029 individuals between 10 and 29 years of age is used. The main contribution of the current study is in the construction of the Information and Communication Technology composite index for Egypt, namely the digital divide index designed to measure the urban and rural digital divide among youth in Egypt. Our results indicate that there is a positive correlation between urbanization and digital divide. Other control variables such as gender, wealth, and the level of education are also found to be significant predictors of the digital divide. These results are in line with previous empirical studies in other countries. © 2014, Eurasia Business and Economics Society.