absence of a clear trend in aggregate consumption masks heterogeneous patterns in paper consumption by paper category. While the consumption of Household and Sanitary paper (Column 4) has increased during our study period, and the consumption of Printing and Writing paper (Column 3) has fluctuated without a defined positive or negative trend, the consumption of Newsprint paper has decreased during the same period (Column 2).<sup>13</sup>

**Table 1. Descriptive Statistics. Yearly Evolution of Paper consumption per** **<u>capita (in kilograms)</u>**

||**A**|**Colum**<br>**ggregate**|**n 1**<br>**Paper**|||**Colum**<br>**Newsp**|**n 2**<br>**rint**||**Pri**|**Colum**<br>**nting and**|**n 3**<br>**Writi**|**ng**|**Hous**|**Colum**<br>**ehold an**|**n 4**<br>**d Sanit**|**ary**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Mean **|**Std. Dev**|**. Min **|**Max **|**Mean **|**Std. Dev**|**. Min **|**Max **|**Mean **|**Std. Dev**|**. Min **|**Max **|**Mean **|**Std. Dev**|**. Min **|**Max**|
|**1999**|138.2|91.9|14.2|395.1|23.8|18.8|1.9|59.6|42.9|39.7|1.9|187.2|9.1|7.4|0.0|24.0|
|**2000**|147.9|96.0|16.6|429.1|26.2|20.7|2.5|79.0|46.0|43.6|4.1|213.1|9.8|7.6|0.2|25.2|
|**2001**|146.0|90.5|17.7|375.0|25.4|19.6|2.4|72.2|45.4|41.6|4.4|201.3|10.0|7.5|0.3|23.7|
|**2002**|140.9|84.1|17.5|329.1|22.5|18.1|2.6|66.7|38.6|23.5|5.5|102.3|10.2|7.6|0.3|24.9|
|**2003**|143.1|80.2|22.3|326.5|22.9|17.8|3.0|69.9|39.8|23.1|6.3|88.4|10.4|7.6|0.3|25.0|
|**2004**|142.7|75.5|25.4|333.8|22.3|17.4|3.4|78.9|44.8|29.6|7.3|127.3|11.3|8.3|0.5|25.9|
|**2005**|144.1|77.1|27.4|324.6|22.4|19.2|3.2|87.7|45.9|28.5|7.1|108.6|11.0|7.7|0.4|24.2|
|**2006**|152.4|75.5|26.8|330.1|22.7|19.3|3.3|86.2|45.3|23.9|5.1|105.8|11.0|8.2|0.6|29.2|
|**2007**|149.8|71.8|33.7|324.5|22.0|19.2|3.5|88.8|44.9|24.2|6.6|112.1|11.3|8.7|0.6|31.4|
|**2008**|148.6|70.4|31.4|332.6|23.0|19.7|4.1|85.0|44.8|22.2|7.0|97.7|11.4|8.1|0.7|26.3|

Source: Own calculations based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Because our panel is unbalanced, and in order to facilitate the interpretation of the yearly evolution of paper consumption by category, Columns 1 and 2 include information from 24 countries, Column 3 includes information from 22 countries, and Column 4 includes information from 19 countries.

It is important to remember that paper consumption is driven by a variety of factors and Internet use is only one of its drivers. However, the statistics in Table 1 suggest that Internet use might have caused the negative trend for this paper category by showing that only the paper used in the production of newspaper exhibits a negative trend from all paper categories, and considering how fast the online reading of newspapers has diffused. Although suggestive of an Internet impact on the Newsprint paper category, the information in Table 1 only represents summary

> 13  The Newsprint, Printing and Writing, Household and Sanitary paper categories represent around 50 percent of the total paper consumption. The remaining 50 percent includes the following categories: wrapping and packaging paper and paperboard, linerboard, kraft liner, unbleached, bleached, fluting medium, semi-chemical, other fluting medium, kraft wrapping and packaging paper, sack kraft,, other kraft wrapping and packaging paper, folding boxboard, pulp based, bleached chemical pulp based, other pulp based, recovered paper based, other paperboard), other wrapping and packaging paper and paperboard, and other wrapping paper.

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