Question 17.23

17.23 E-government use in Canada.

Electronic government (e-government) provides digital means, such as an email address or a website, for citizens to contact public officials. The vision behind e-government is to create a more citizen-focused government. One study used survey data to determine what factors are related to a citizen using an e-government website rather than visiting or calling a government office.7 The dependent variable refers to whether the citizen used the website or not. Explanatory variables include sex (1 = female, 0 =male), daily Internet use (1 = yes, 0=no), age (six ordered categories numbered 1 through 6), household income (seven ordered categories numbered 1 through 7), size of the community (six ordered categories numbered 1 through 6), and education (1 = at least some postsecondary education, 0 = other). The following table summarizes the results.

Explanatory variable Odds ratio
Sex 0.87
Daily Internet use 4.16
Age 0.81
Income 1.01
Size 0.85
Education 0.97
Intercept 0.66

All but “Education” and “Income” were significant at the 0.05 level.

  1. Interpret each of the odds ratios in terms of the probability that the individual uses the website.
  2. Compute the regression coefficients for each of the variables in the table.
  3. What are the odds that a male college graduate, who uses the Internet daily, is age category 3, household Income level 4, and community size 5 is using the Internet?

17.23

(a) Females are 0.87 times as likely (13% less likely) to use the website as males. Daily Internet users are 4.16 times as likely to use the website as their counterparts. Older-aged people are less likely to use the website than younger-aged people. Those from larger communities are less likely to use the website than those from smaller communities. Those with different incomes and/or educations are about equally likely to use the website because they aren't significantly different from 1. (b) , Daily Internet use: 1.4255, , Income: 0.01, , , . (c) 0.6537.