nep-ict New Economics Papers
on Information and Communication Technologies
Issue of 2017‒08‒27
four papers chosen by
Walter Frisch
Universität Wien

  1. Digital Economics By Avi Goldfarb; Catherine Tucker
  2. Coverage of Three Tragedies in the Russian Media: Application of the Network Agenda Model By Anastasia Kazun; Anton Kazun
  3. Origins and Pathways of Innovation in the Third Industrial Revolution: Sweden, 1950-2013 By Taalbi, Josef
  4. ICT and resilience in times of crisis: Evidence from cross-country micro moments data By Bertschek, Irene; Polder, Michael; Schulte, Patrick

  1. By: Avi Goldfarb; Catherine Tucker
    Abstract: Digital technology is the representation of information in bits. This technology has reduced the cost of storage, computation, and transmission of data. Research on digital economics examines whether and how digital technology changes economic activity. In this review, we emphasize the reduction in five distinct economic costs associated with digital economic activity: Search costs, replication costs, transportation costs, tracking costs, and verification costs.
    JEL: L81 L86 O33
    Date: 2017–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23684&r=ict
  2. By: Anastasia Kazun (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Anton Kazun (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: December 19, 2016, saw three tragedies simultaneously, that could not go unnoticed by the Russian media: dozens of people died as a result of a surrogate alcohol poisoning in Irkutsk, a Russian ambassador was killed in Turkey, and a terrorist attack took place at the Christmas market in Berlin. In this article using the network agenda theory we analyze how these tragedies were covered by various types of mass media: on 11 federal TV channels, in 1,974 print newspapers, in 34,905 online newspapers and 2,574 blogs. We believe that direct and indirect control of the agenda by the state can be exercised by creating a network of events that will canalize correctly discussions about tragedies. We showed that ties between the tragedy and a network of other acute issues are more important than objective circumstances, such as the number of victims or a geography of the event. The context in which the events were looked at led to greater attention to the killing of the ambassador and less attention to surrogate alcohol poisoning. The Russian mass media paid significantly less attention to the Berlin terror attack, it yet was used as a supplement to the demonstration of importance of the fight against terrorism
    Keywords: alcohol, construction of problems, Internet, mass media, network agenda-setting, press, Putin, Russia, terrorism
    JEL: Z
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:48/ps/2017&r=ict
  3. By: Taalbi, Josef (Department of Economic History, Lund University)
    Abstract: This study examines the factors that have shaped the long-term evolution of the ICT industry in Sweden, 1950-2013. Exploiting a new historical micro-database on actual innovation output, the driving forces and technological interdependencies in the third industrial revolution are chronicled. The results of this study support some stylized facts about innovational interdependencies in general-purpose technologies: a closely knitted set of industries have provided positive and negative driving forces for the development of ICT innovations. The historical evolution of the GPT surrounding microelectronics can in this perspective be described as a sequence of development blocks.
    Keywords: ICT; General-Purpose Technologies; Innovation Biographies; Network Analysis; Development Blocks
    JEL: L16 N14 O30
    Date: 2017–04–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0159&r=ict
  4. By: Bertschek, Irene; Polder, Michael; Schulte, Patrick
    Abstract: ICT-intensive firms are often found to have a better performance than their non-ICTintensive counterparts. Along with investing in ICT capital they have to adapt their production and business processes in order to reap the potentials implied by the use of ICT. Are these firms also more resilient in times of crisis? We study this question by exploiting a novel and unique data set from the Microments Database. Covering 12 countries, 7 industries and the period from 2001 to 2010, the data allow us to distinguish between ICT-intensive and non-ICT-intensive firms within industries. We find evidence that indeed during the crisis in 2008 and 2009, ICT-intensive firms were hit less hard with respect to their productivity. This holds in particular for firms from service industries. Moreover, ICT-intensive firms were also more successful in introducing process innovations during that period which could explain their better productivity performance compared to non-ICT intensive firms.
    Keywords: ICT,innovation,productivity,economic crisis,resilience,meso-level data
    JEL: H12 J24 O31 O47
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17030&r=ict

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