Gender and Use of E-Government Services in Turkey: E-Government in Turkey

Introduction

Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) lead to striking changes in daily of individuals, costs and operations management of firms and structure of government services. As the use of internet widens, decision making processes of economic agents are restructured for the online world. In 2016, 3.5 billion people used the internet around the world (ITU, 2017). Thus, businesses and governments adjust their actions and policies to enhance customer and citizen satisfaction levels as well as reduce costs to increase efficiency through adoption of online services. The use of ICTs for public administration and government services is usually referred as ‘e-government’ (Taipale, 2013). Implementation of e-government projects has the potential to bring variety of benefits. E-government applications would enable governments to easily set up networks and service delivery; provide less costly interaction with citizens; increase transparency, accountability and efficiency of government platforms (Yildiz, 2007).

Many countries employ e-government services for establishment of various public services such as tax filing, employment and business processes, licensing, provision of policy and voting information, fine payment, procurement and law services, public health care services, etc. (Akman, Yazici, Mishra, & Arifoglu, 2005; Gupta, Singh, & Bhaskar, 2016). Provision of public services by online platforms has crucial implications for citizens as well. The electronic government tools provide easy access and convenience for government services and information systems. However, effectiveness of e-government relies on citizens’ acceptance and utilization of corresponding services (Carter & Belanger, 2005). In this chapter, determinants of e-government use are analyzed for Turkish case with a special focus on gender.

Various studies investigate the factors influencing use of e-government services by citizens. The literature provides evidence on the relationship between e-government adoption, demographics and socioeconomic variables such as age, gender, education, income, employment status, marital status, trust in government and technology (Belanger & Carter, 2009; Colesca & Dobrica, 2008; Gupta, Singh, & Bhaskar, 2016; Hung, Chang, & Yu, 2006; Reddick, 2005). The earlier findings for the effect of gender on e-government use are mixed. Some studies report that men are more likely to employ online public services (Akman, Yazici, Mishra, & Arifoglu, 2005; Choudrie & Dwivedi, 2005; Venkatesh, Sykes, & Venkatraman, 2014) whereas many researchers find no significant gender differences in adoption of e-government services by citizens (Belanger & Carter, 2009; Colesca & Dobrica, 2008; Reddick, 2005; Taipale, 2013). Thus, this chapter complements the literature by providing further evidence for the association of gender and employment of online public service tools from a developing country.

The author conducts an empirical analysis in order to investigate covariates of e-government use in Turkey. Multiple waves of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Usage Survey of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI, 2015; TSI, 2016) are used to obtain individual level data. Probit estimation framework is employed for regression analysis. Empirical results exhibit that Turkish females are less likely to use e-government services. Household income, education level, being employed and frequency of internet use demonstrate positive associations with probability of using e-government services. However, age is negatively correlated with e-government use in Turkey.

Rest of the chapter first provides analysis of literature in the background section. The next section describes data and estimation methodology. Fourth section presents and discusses findings of the empirical analysis. The last section describes conclusions with policy implications and raises issues for further research.