ESZTER HARGITTAI'S RESEARCH Weaving the Western Web: Explaining Differences in Internet Connectivity Among OECD Countries [pdf] 1999. Telecommunications Policy. 23(10/11):701-718. Abstract Despite the Internet's increasing importance, there is little social scientific work that addresses its diffusion. Our knowledge is especially limited with respect to the conditions that encourage its spread across nations. This paper takes a first step in explaining the differences in Internet connectivity among OECD countries. After examining the impact of economic indicators, human capital, institutional legal environment, and existing technological infrastructure, the empirical analyses show that economic wealth and telecommunications policy are the most salient predictors of a nations' Internet connectivity. Outline I.Introduction II. Background III. Theoretical Considerations III.a) Findings from previous research III.b) Economic factors III.c) Human capital III.d) Institutional legal environment III.e) Existing technologies III.f) Testable Propositions IV. Data and Methods IV.a) Outcome variable IV.b) Explanatory factors V. Findings VI. Discussion VII. Conclusion Acknowledgements I would like to thank Marta Tienda, Miguel Centeno, Martin Dodge, Bruce Western, the members of Princeton University's 1998/99 Sociology Empirical Research Seminar and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I am grateful to Tim Kelly, Ben Petrazzini and Sam Paltridge for their help in providing data. Please note Please do not post this document on any Web sites or distribute it on any mailing lists. You can point people to its online location here: http://www.eszter.com/research/a02-westernweb.html Thank you.