TY  - JOUR
AU  - Goolsbee,Austan
AU  - Klenow,Peter J.
TI  - Evidence on Learning and Network Externalities in the Diffusion of Home Computers
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7329
PY  - 1999
Y2  - September 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7329
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7329.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Austan Goolsbee
Booth School of Business
University of Chicago
5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-5869
Fax: 773/702-0458
E-Mail: goolsbee@chicagobooth.edu

Peter J. Klenow
Department of Economics
579 Serra Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA  94305-6072
Tel: 650/725-8169
Fax: NA
E-Mail: Pete@Klenow.net
AB  - In this paper we examine the importance of local spillovers such as network externalities  and learning from others in the diffusion of home computers using data on 110,000 U.S. households in 1997. Controlling for many individual characteristics, we find that people are more likely to buy their first home computer in areas where a high fraction of households already own computers or when a large share of their friends and family own computers.  Further results suggest that these patterns are unlikely to be explained by city-specific unobserved traits. Looked at in more detail, the spillovers appear to come from experienced and intensive computer users. They are not associated with the use of any particular type of software but do seem to be highly tied to the use of e-mail and the Internet, consistent with computers being part of a local information and communications network.
ER  -