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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Simplice Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroun); Nicholas Biekpe (Cape Town, South Africa.); Vanessa S. Tchamyou (Yaoundé/Cameroon) |
| Abstract: | Purpose – This study examines how linkages between information and communication technology (ICT) and remittances affect the doing of business. Design/methodology/approach – The focus is on a panel of 49 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000-2012. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. Findings – While we establish some appealing results in terms of net negative effects on constraints to the doing of business (i.e. time to start a business and time to pay taxes), some positive net effects are also apparent (i.e. number of start-up procedures, time to build a warehouse and time to register a property). We also establish ICT penetration thresholds at which the unconditional effect of remittances can be changed from positive to negative, notably: (i) for the number of start-up procedures, an internet level of 9.00 penetration per 100 people is required while (ii) for the time to build a warehouse, a mobile phone penetration level of 32.33 penetration per 100 people is essential. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess linkages between ICT, remittances and doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Keywords: | Remittances; ICT; Doing business; Development; Africa |
| JEL: | F24 L96 O30 O55 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:18/010&r=ict |
| By: | Edward Oughton (Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | Moving from 4G LTE to 5G is an archetypal example of technological change. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) who fail to adapt will likely lose market share. Hitherto, qualitative frameworks have been put forward to aid with business model adaptation for MNOs facing on the one hand increasing traffic growth, while on the other declining revenues. In this analysis, we provide a complementary scenario-based assessment of 5G infrastructure strategies in relation to mobile traffic growth. This information is required by commercial players in the digital ecosystem for strategy development, and can support management decision-making. Developing and applying an open-source modelling framework, we quantify the uncertainty associated with future demand and supply for a hypothetical MNO, using Britain as a case study example. We find that spectrum strategies require the least amount of capital expenditure and are capable of meeting baseline demand until approximately 2025, after which more spectrum capacity will be required. Alternatively, small cell deployments provide significant capacity but at considerable cost, and hence are likely only in the densest locations, unless MNOs can boost revenues by capturing value from the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities or other technological developments dependent on digital connectivity. |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jbs:wpaper:201704r&r=ict |
| By: | Antoci, Angelo; Bonelli, Laura; Paglieri, Fabio; Reggiani, Tommaso; Sabatini, Fabio |
| Abstract: | Abstract Social media have been credited with the potential of reinvigorating trust by offering new opportunities for social and political participation. This view has been recently challenged by the rising phenomenon of online incivility, which has made the environment of social networking sites hostile to many users. We conduct a novel experiment in a Facebook setting to study how the effect of social media on trust varies depending on the civility or incivility of online interaction. We find that participants exposed to civil Facebook interaction are significantly more trusting. In contrast, when the use of Facebook is accompanied by the experience of online incivility, no significant changes occur in users' behavior. These results are robust to alternative configurations of the treatments. |
| Keywords: | social media, Facebook, online incivility, trust, social networks, cooperation, trust game |
| JEL: | C91 Z0 Z13 |
| Date: | 2018–02–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:85124&r=ict |
| By: | Maximilian Schäfer; Geza Sapi; Szabolcs Lorincz |
| Abstract: | Are there economies of scale to data in internet search? This paper is first to use real search engine query logs to empirically investigate how data drives the quality of internet search results. We find evidence that the quality of search results improve with more data on previous searches. Moreover, our results indicate that the type of data matters as well: personalized information is particularly valuable as it massively increases the speed of learning. We also provide some evidence that factors not directly related to data such as the general quality of the applied algorithms play an important role. The suggested methods to disentangle the effect of data from other factors driving the quality of search results can be applied to assess the returns to data in various recommendation systems in e-commerce, including product and information search. We also discuss the managerial, privacy, and competition policy implications of our findings. |
| Keywords: | Big Data, Recommendation quality, Internet search, E-Commerce, Economies of Scale, Search engines |
| JEL: | L81 L86 M15 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1730&r=ict |
| By: | Wolfgang Briglauer; Niklas S. Dürr; Oliver Falck; Kai Hüschelrath |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid programme for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German state of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using matched difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have – depending on broadband quality – between 18.4 and 25.4 percentage points higher broadband coverage than non-aided municipalities. This increase in broadband coverage, closing the digital divide, results in an average increase of six employed individuals living in the respective aid-receiving municipalities while leaving the number of employed (measured at the place of work) or self-employed individuals and wages unaffected. We therefore conclude that an increase in broadband coverage through state aid protects rural areas from depopulation, but does not contribute to a further closing of the economic divide in the form of creating new jobs. |
| Keywords: | : government policy, state aid, ex-post evaluation, broadband, employment, rural areas, European Union, Germany, Bavaria |
| JEL: | D62 D73 G38 H23 J23 K23 L52 L96 L98 R23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6947&r=ict |
| By: | Tadas Limba (Mykolas Romeris University); Konstantin Agafonov (Mykolas Romeris University); Linas Paukštė (Cognit consult JSC); Martynas Damkus (Mykolas Romeris University); Tomas Plėta (NATO Energy Security Center of Excellence) |
| Abstract: | The modern world could not be imagined without the information and communications technology. Today's society, its life and social relations are deeply influenced by the virtual space, and that stands as a reason why the world's Information Technology specialists and representatives of various branches of science have been focusing on solving the problems in the sphere of cyber security. Software and technological solutions used in reorganization of the activity of private sector nowadays are widely used in the public sector as well. By using technologies, countries put their effort into involving their citizens into the process of governance and direct participation in various political processes inside the state itself, and one of the most widespread tools to motivate the citizen-to-state political participation and resident's direct interaction in political processes is internet voting. Authors of scientific literature investigate how cybersecurity management is being comprehended and analyzed in technological, legal, management, economical, human resource management and other aspects; how cyber security is analyzed in the context of services provided by institutions of public administration; which means of cyber security management are essential, in order to speed up the processes of establishing e-voting systems. In this article the authors investigate the theoretical aspects of cyber security management in internet voting, analyze the global experience in the sphere of cyber security management implementation with the help of already established e-voting systems, evaluate the properties of cyber security management in the process of implementation of internet voting in Lithuania, as well as present audience with an in-depth analysis of the opinion of the local population, cyber security and voting system specialists, concerning the matters and possibilities of establishing internet voting in Lithuania. The authors also propose a cyber security management model, which could be used in the process of implementation (both preparation and establishment) of the internet voting system in Lithuania. |
| Keywords: | cyber security model,cyber security management,cyber security,e-voting,internet voting |
| Date: | 2017–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01706905&r=ict |
| By: | Prüfer, Jens (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Dengler, Sebastian (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Recent progress in information technologies provides sellers with detailed knowledge about consumers' preferences, approaching perfect price discrimination in the limit. We construct a model where consumers with less strategic sophistication than the seller's pricing algorithm face a trade-off when buying. They choose between a direct, transaction cost-free sales channel and a privacy-protecting, but costly, anonymous channel. We show that the anonymous channel is used even in the absence of an explicit taste for privacy if consumers are not too strategically sophisticated. This provides a micro-foundation for consumers' privacy choices. Some consumers benefit but others suffer from their anonymization. |
| Keywords: | privacy; big data; perfect price discrimination; level-k thinking |
| JEL: | L11 D11 D83 D01 L86 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:3fac3011-dc4d-4b81-8f66-32d3b7a3c761&r=ict |
| By: | Jakub Growiec |
| Abstract: | I propose a synthetic theory of economic growth and technological progress over the entire human history. Based on this theory as well as on the analogies with three previous eras (the hunter-gatherer era, the agricultural era and the industrial era) and the technological revolutions which initiated them, I draw conclusions for the contemporary digital era. I argue that each opening of a new era adds a new, previously inactive dimension of economic development, and redefines the key inputs and output of the production process. Economic growth accelerates across the consecutive eras, but there are also big shifts in factor shares and inequality. The two key inputs to the digital-era production process are hardware and software. Human skilled labor is complementary to hardware and substitutable with software, which increasingly includes sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. I also argue that economists have not yet designed sufficient measurement tools, economic policies and institutions appropriate for the digital-era economy |
| Keywords: | economic growth, technological progress, unified growth theory, digital economy, artificial intelligence. |
| JEL: | O10 O30 O40 |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2018034&r=ict |