What is Demand-Side Research

There has been considerable attention given to the issue of unrepresentative access; however, research to date has focused on individual level influences including cultural, social, generational, and economic factors that impact behavior with respect to online engagement. This chapter takes an institutional approach. Derived from a quantitative assessment of the 238 largest cities in the United States, we use multivariate modeling of variables to illuminate what factors affect institutional e-government development efforts at the local level. We find that the concentration of oft cited digital divide populations has no relation to the quality of e-government in U.S. municipalities. This is true for race and ethnicity variables as well as income and age variables when measured against any index developed for this analysis. The only hypothesis that holds significance is the education variable. Cities with lower education levels are more likely to have lower quality e-government.