Although most households are equipped with digital information and communication technologies (DICT), a significant digital divide remains in internet access at home along income and digital native/immigrant status. Previous research has mainly investigated whether this digital inequality is attributable to constraints such as technological availability or financial resources. This article examines the extent to which digital inequality of internet access at home is preference-driven by comparing internet preference with other housing preferences and investigating the effect heterogeneity of social status on internet preference. We analyse a dataset comprising 131 residents of a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Bochum, Germany. This neighbourhood provides a suitable setting, as internet access is available throughout the area but varies between individual households. Using a factorial survey with housing vignettes, we assess the importance of internet preference. This research design circumvents many of the difficulties in measuring housing preferences, such as unrealistic wishful thinking, and facilitates the investigation of effect heterogeneity in terms of social status characteristics. The results show that the preference for internet access at home is comparable to that of other housing amenities and does not vary according to age, income or the presence of children. The findings reinforce the importance of the financial constraint-driven causes of the digital divide.

中文翻译：

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贫困社区偏好在家中使用互联网


尽管大多数家庭都配备了数字信息和通信技术 (DICT)，但家庭互联网接入以及收入和数字原住民/移民身份方面仍然存在显着的数字鸿沟。先前的研究主要调查这种数字不平等是否归因于技术可用性或财务资源等限制。本文通过将互联网偏好与其他住房偏好进行比较，并调查社会地位的异质性对互联网偏好的影响，探讨了家庭互联网接入的数字不平等在多大程度上是偏好驱动的。我们分析了包含德国波鸿贫困社区 131 名居民的数据集。该社区提供了合适的环境，因为整个地区都有互联网接入，但各个家庭之间的情况有所不同。通过对住房情况进行析因调查，我们评估了互联网偏好的重要性。这一研究设计规避了衡量住房偏好的许多困难，例如不切实际的一厢情愿，并有利于社会地位特征方面的效应异质性调查。结果表明，人们对在家上网的偏好与对其他住房设施的偏好相当，并且不会因年龄、收入或是否有孩子而变化。研究结果强调了数字鸿沟由金融约束驱动的原因的重要性。