Telecommunications Policy最新文献

This paper attempts to understand whether digitization, measured in terms of ICT capital and penetration of the internet, helps reduce the negative impact of informality on labor productivity growth, especially in emerging & developing countries. Informality is argued to be a drag on productivity growth in emerging & developing countries. We argue that increased use of digital technologies can help informal sector reduce transaction and coordination costs; enhance the linkages between the informal and formal sectors; facilitate the integration of the informal sector in the global value chain; and also increase the potential for the formalization of the economy in general - all of these are likely to contribute to aggregate productivity growth. Our econometric analysis using panel data for 118 countries from 1997-2017 provides some evidence of ICT capital deepening helping to reduce informality's negative impact on aggregate productivity growth. However, the moderating effect is modest compared to the magnitude of the negative impact of informality, indicating the need for a faster and more intense digitization efforts in emerging & developing economies. Moreover, investments in complementary factors including skills and infrastructure are imperative to fully unleash the potential of ICT in reducing the negative impact of informality.

Healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients are increasingly relying on telehealth services (healthcare provision over the internet) to provide and seek care. It turns internet access disparities into a health equity concern, i.e., poor internet access can contribute to poor health. In response, two federal programs in the United States – Healthcare Connect Fund and the Telecom Program – subsidize internet access for HCPs in rural or remote areas. I use a two-part pricing approach to examine the evolution of internet speed and price for HCPs that received internet subsidies during 2014–2020. I find that HCP internet is annually getting 30.77% faster and 5.23% cheaper. During the same period, the cost to subscribe to an internet service and the cost to raise bandwidth have annually fallen by 5.02% and 7.83%, respectively. A comparison of the trends between rural and urban HCPs suggests that the rural/urban divide in internet access has shrunk during the study years. It indicates that the subsidy programs likely have achieved their stated goal of improving rural internet.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) bring many hopes for development. But there are also fears arising, particularly when they affect the future of work. While there are many studies on public opinion about how ICT will shape work in OECD countries, we find much less research in developing countries in which labor markets work very differently. We present evidence from a field survey with an experimental component in Ghana. We show that, while hopes are much more pronounced than in advanced economies, opinions also change once people are exposed to new types of information. Using a ‘text as data’ approach, we also investigate reasons that explain the differences in attitudes and what people associate with digitalization. We conclude that, in Ghana, especially semi-formal, self-employed people hope that new technologies will allow them to leapfrog old ones that have historically been marred by market and government failures. Compared to developed countries, it is rather some of the higher educated to whom the negative consequences also have relevance. Our findings have broader implications for the acceptance and use of ICT and the future of work in developing countries.

In the field of mobile communication, 6G technology has enhanced features, such as ultrahigh data rates and sharing, bandwidth connectivity, and low data latency, compared to 5G technology. As new services become possible due to these characteristics, attempts to present promising future services based on 6G technology are occurring in academia and industry. However, because 6G technology has a very wide range of applications as a fundamental technology, 6G service scenario research is also being conducted for each sector. To predict 6G technology use in the future, it is necessary to understand comprehensively the scenarios being studied sporadically by sector. Therefore, we aim to derive major service scenarios by analyzing in-depth public data for 6G service scenarios. We collected research papers, corporate reports, and news articles on 6G service scenarios and performed topic modeling to derive four major domains and 16 application areas. Afterward, the derived service's feasibility and promising scenario were evaluated by utilizing the future-context canvas and business model canvas that analyze the service's value from the user's and supplier's perspectives, respectively. The research results are expected to support technology development and business planning in the field by enhancing understanding of 6G service scenarios.

This paper examines the impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the information and communication technology (ICT) development of participating economies. ICT development is measured with internet penetration, mobile penetration, broadband subscription, and telephone subscription. The causal effect of the BRI on ICT development is estimated using a propensity score reweighting difference-in-differences (DiD) model. We find that the participating economies experience a significant rise in ICT development. A country's participation in the Digital Silk Road (DSR) in addition to the BRI further increases its ICT development and increases its participation in global ICT value chains relative to their BRI-only counterparts. Overall, the benefit of participating in the BRI on ICT development is enhanced by participating in the DSR. However, there are unequal trade creation effects between China and the rest of the world. The participating economies increase their imports of computer and information services more from and increase their imports of communication services less from China than from the rest of the world after the participation. These results are robust to a parallel trend test, alternative ICT measures and alternative estimation methods. Finally, we highlight the implications of our results for policy makers in developing countries who want to improve their ICT development and to engage in global ICT value chains, and for academics in developing future research to evaluate these initiatives at the macro- and micro-levels.

The least developed countries (LDCs) must experience faster economic growth rates if they are to catch up to the industrialized nations. A key factor in advancing economic growth and development in the digital age are information and communication technologies (ICT). We use time series data from 1994 to 2021 and use an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique to estimate the effects of ICT on GDP growth for Tanzania, the world's most populous country located entirely south of the equator. We establish a causal relationship between ICT infrastructure/access and GDP growth in Tanzania, accounting for both short-run and long-run dynamics. In particular, mobile telephone subscription growth exhibits a significant impact on economic growth in both the short and the long run in Tanzania. This suggests that, at early stages of digitalization, adoption of mobile telecommunications gives a boost to economic growth, as early adapters tend to be very effective users. However, diminishing marginal returns appear to result, as other production factors may not fully absorb technological advancements.

In recent years, the rigidification of the social structure in Chinese society has attracted public attention. Conventional wisdom holds that internet use could potentially improve upward class mobility. However, little empirical research has been conducted in the Chinese context. The current study aims to investigate the effects of different types of internet use on perceived future mobility. This study demonstrates that perceived upward future mobility is generally maintained in China. Internet experience leads to a negative impact of the internet on perceived future mobility. Furthermore, entertainment use positively affects perceived future mobility, while information-seeking use negatively affects perceived future mobility. This study shows that the effects of different types of internet use on perceived future mobility are heterogeneous across age groups.

Regulatory provisions pose legal constraints on deploying mobile communication networks and related services. Local 5G and upcoming 6G networks, particularly those that are independent of the big mobile network operators (MNOs), face new challenges due to the incoherent harmonization and implementation of the regulatory provisions and the standby approach undertaken by many EU member countries. This paper analyses the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) Directive from the perspective of local mobile communication networks by combining business model innovation and legitimacy approaches in an ecosystemic context. Based on the analysis, we recommend regulators focus on terminology, spectrum management, access and interconnection, security and privacy, and competition when enabling local mobile communications business.

As Internet usage reshapes our societies, digital inequalities have increased over the past few decades. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries accelerated their digital transformation processes, and it is widely believed the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing inequalities in the digital realm. Yet, few studies have empirically examined whether digital inequalities in the labor market increased during the pandemic. This analysis studies how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Chinese workers' Internet usage and how this influence varied across socioeconomic groups. By using the ordered probit model and leveraging the most recent data from the China Family Panel Studies and the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, we find that the pandemic significantly increased the overall level of Internet usage in the country, and the mediating effects of the perceived importance of the Internet and access to the Internet are confirmed. As Internet usage increased, digital inequalities in China's labor market deepened, especially among young and wealthy workers with high social status in urban areas, while older and poorer workers in rural areas benefited less from this new ‘digital wave.’ Moreover, during the pandemic, Internet usage increased among employees working in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which suggests a growing digital inequality gap between SOEs and other sectors. Following a series of robustness tests, our research findings remain valid. We propose a policy redesign that embodies a comprehensive long-term vision and guarantees raising the levels of Internet usage for socially and economically disadvantaged groups in China.

This paper analyses the impact of household adoption of mobile money services on child labour and schooling in Tanzania. The paper uses data drawn from the Tanzania National Panel Surveys (TNPS), for the survey periods as follows: 2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13, and 2014/15. The TNPS are national representative surveys conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania in collaboration with the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LMSA-ISA). The surveys collect detailed information on individual, household, and community-level characteristics. The panel nature of the TNPS allows for the same households to be interviewed over time. The study uses a difference-in-differences approach, and instrumental variables strategy to investigate the nexus between mobile money adoption and child labour and school enrolment in Tanzania. The findings of this study reveal a positive and significant effect of mobile money adoption on school enrolment, but a negative effect on children's labour market activities. Moreover, the study identifies heterogenous impacts across child's gender and age; and remittances receipt and education expenditure are the potential pathways through which mobile money adoption affects child labour and school enrolment. Overall, the results suggest that policies that enhance financial inclusion such as the introduction of mobile money can be effective in improving child's school enrolment and a decline in the incidence of child labour.