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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Kox, Henk L.M. |
| Abstract: | Private and public concern about digital security, cybercrime and data privacy is growing the last few years. If Internet-related markets are flexible enough to cope with security concerns, given time, one would expect that - per unit of Internet traffic - the number and costs of cybersecurity incidents fall over time. This paper is a first attempt to assess empirically whether overall Internet traffic growth has grown faster than the number of cybersecurity incidents. The conclusion is that, overall, the Internet has over time has become a safer place when measured by the number of security incidents per unit of transmitted data. The implication is that the current surge in reported cyberincidents is primarily driven by the growth in scale and pervasiveness of Internet communication exchange. There are a number of caveats that should be taken into account, but for this more consistent and reliable cybersecurity statistics would be required than are available at present. |
| Keywords: | Internet traffic, cybersecurity, time trend safety Internet |
| JEL: | L86 L96 N7 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47883&r=ict |
| By: | Antonio R. Andrés (Al Akhawayn University, School of Business Administration); Simplice A. Asongu (African Governance and Development Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a recent methodological innovation on intellectual property rights (IPRs) harmonization to project global timelines for common policies against business software piracy. The findings on 99 countries are premised on 15 fundamental characteristics of software piracy based on income-levels (high-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and low-income), legal-origins (English common-law, French civil-law, German civil-law and, Scandinavian civil-law) and, regional proximity (South Asia, Europe & Central Asia, East Asia & the Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean and, Sub-Saharan Africa). The results broadly show that a feasible horizon for the harmonization of blanket policies ranges from 4 to 10 years. |
| Keywords: | Software piracy, Intellectual property rights, Panel data, Convergence |
| JEL: | F42 K42 O34 O38 O57 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adv:wpaper:201301&r=ict |
| By: | Jenny C. Aker; Marcel Fafchamps |
| Abstract: | Expansion in mobile phone coverage has improved access to information throughout the developing world, particularly within sub-Saharan Africa. The existing evidence suggests that information technology has improved market efficiency and reduced consumer prices for certain commodities. There are fewer studies assessing the impact of the technology on producers. Using market-level data we estimate the impact of mobile phone coverage on producer prices in Niger. We find that mobile phone coverage reduced the spatial dispersion of producer prices by 6 percent for a semi-perishable commodity, cowpea. These effects are strongest for remote markets and lowest at harvest time. Mobile telephony, however, has no effect on price dispersion for millet and sorghum, two storable crops. There is also no impact on the average producer price, but mobile phone coverage is associated with a reduction in the intra-annual price risk, primarily for cowpeas. These findings are confirmed by data from a farmer-level survey: we find that farmers owning mobile phones obtain more price information but do not engage more in spatial arbitrage and hence do not receive higher prices – except for peanuts. The additional evidence presented here helps understand how mobile phone coverage affects agricultural market efficiency in developing countries. It suggests that the impact differs across agents – depending on whether they use the information for arbitrage or not – and across crops – depending on whether inter-temporal arbitrage is possible or not. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Information, Information Technology, Market Performance, Search Costs, Niger |
| JEL: | O1 O3 Q13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2013-09&r=ict |
| By: | Larson, Ronald B.; Brown, Anna K. |
| Abstract: | Integrating the concerns of stakeholders into the decision process can be particularly important when adopting a new technology. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) offers many potential benefits to the healthcare industry. However, hospital administrators who are examining this technology may not be considering the concerns of some secondary stakeholders (e.g, patients). A consumer survey found that support for two RFID applications in hospitals varied both across respondents and across applications. Privacy attitudes and behaviors were linked with RFID support levels. Increased two-way communications between healthcare management and both primary and secondary stakeholders may help improve the technology adoption decisions. |
| Keywords: | Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea13:150975&r=ict |