Convergence of ICT in the user and infrastructure level of Iran's provinces

Authors
parvaneh salatin 1
mahdi molania 2
mahmood mahmoodzadeh 3
mohammad hosein fatehi 1
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Firoozkooh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Firoozkooh, Iran
2 Department of Economics, Firoozkooh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Firoozkooh, Iran
3 Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Firoozkooh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Firoozkooh, Iran
Abstract
Today, information and communication technology affects all aspects of human life. The result of which is a transformation in all methods of production and distribution to education, exchanges and human relations. On the other hand, the requirement for the realization of economic development and growth is the higher growth rate in poor and underdeveloped areas than in rich and developed areas, which is proposed as the hypothesis of convergence. In this regard, regional inequalities are a fundamental challenge for the development of regions and these inequalities are a serious threat to create a balanced development of regions. Therefore, the main goal of the current study is to investigate the convergence of Fava among the provinces of the country. The results using the Nahar and Inder method during the period of 2002-2013 showed that out of the 30 investigated provinces, divergence in land use occurred in 22 provinces. Also, at the infrastructure level, the average slope of 31 provinces is positive, but the t-value is significant for the provinces of South Khorasan, Khuzestan, Alborz and Fars, which shows that digital divergence has occurred in these provinces during the period under review. Therefore, it can be seen that although in terms of infrastructure, we have had less divergence at the level of the provinces, but in terms of usage, this gap and divergence has increased.


Keywords
Information and Communication Technology
Nahar and Inder method
Convergence
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