What is the Digital Divide in terms of the Human Development Index

The Human Development Index used by the UNDP was defined as a way to improve on the traditional economic indicators in measuring development. The HDI is based on life expectancy at birth, education (adult literacy and gross enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary education), and Gross Domestic Product per capita (at purchasing power parity). (http://www.undp.org/hdr2001/back.pdf) The index is obtained by normalizing the value of each indicator and summing the three. Essentially the HDI is then:

HDI = a * x + b * y + c * z + d

where
a, b, c, and d are constants (derived from the ranges of these statistics),
x is live expectancy at birth
y is a composite index from adult literacy and gross school enrollment
z is per capita GDP

One way to look at the effect of ICTs is to look at the first order approximation to HDI with changes in connectivity:

DHDI = (a * dx/dw + b * dy/dw + c * dz/dw) Dw

where
w is a measure ICT connectivity
d /dw is the differential of the variable with respect to ICT connectivity.

Thus we can assume that (through various processes) that ICTs affect life expectancy, education and GDP. For example, ICTs penetration can affect life expectancy by improving the dissemination about health issues to the population, improving access to health service, improving the availability of health services by allowing increased efficiency in health service delivery, and other means.

One interesting concept of the “digital divide” would be in how much of the potential improvement in the Human Development Index estimated as available with expansion of ICTs in a country one actually achieved. An estimate of the digital divide between two countries might be the difference in HDI attributable to the difference in ICT penetration between them.

I would note that this kind of analysis tends to assume that the penetration of ICTs in a country only increases, and that it is only the absolute value and not the value of penetration as compared with other nations. However, countries with more rapid penetration of ICTs might take market share for world markets from competing countries with less rapid penetration, and per capita GDP might be reduced in a country that was standing still in ICT penetration.

I would suggest that the most important dimensions of the digital divide are not those measuring connectivity per se, but those measuring the effects on the human condition related to connectivity. It is important that people are dying who could be saved and living in misery that could be alleviated by investment in ICTs and their appropriate use. There is no intrinsic merit that I can see to having a lot of infrastructure except in its use to help people.