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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé/Cameroon); Nicholas M. Odhiambo (Pretoria, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | This research assesses the relevance of information and communication technology (ICT) in primary education quality in a panel of 49 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000-2012. The empirical evidence is based on Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) and Instrumental Quantile regressions (IQR). From the 2SLS: (i) mobile phone and internet penetration rates reduce poor quality education and enhancing internet penetration has a net negative effect of greater magnitude. From the IQR: (i) with the exception of the highest quantile for mobile phone penetration and top quantiles for internet penetration, ICT consistently has a negative effect on poor education quality with a non-monotonic pattern. (ii) Net negative effects are exclusively apparent in the median and top quantiles of internet-related regressions. It follows that enhancing internet penetration will benefit countries with above-median levels of poor education quality while enhancing internet penetration is not immediately relevant to reducing poor education quality in countries with below-median levels of poor education quality. |
| Keywords: | ICT; Primary school education; Development; Sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | F24 L96 O30 O55 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agd:wpaper:19/007&r=all |
| By: | Andrea Geraci (European Commission JRC); Mattia Nardotto (KU Leuven); Tommaso Reggiani (Masaryk University); Fabio Sabatini (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | We study how the diffusion of broadband Internet affects social capital using two data sets from the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that broadband access has long depended on customersâ position in the voice telecommunication infrastructure that was designed in the 1930s. The actual speed of an Internet connection, in fact, rapidly decays with the distance of the dwelling from the specific node of the network serving its area. Merging unique information about the topology of the voice network with geocoded longitudinal data about individual social capital, we show that access to broadband Internet caused a significant decline in forms of offline interaction and civic engagement. Overall, our results suggest that broadband penetration substantially crowded out several aspects of social capital. |
| Keywords: | ICT, broadband infrastructure, networks, Internet, social capital, civic capital |
| JEL: | C91 D9 D91 Z1 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mub:wpaper:2018-01&r=all |
| By: | Marie-Agnes Jouanjean |
| Abstract: | How are new opportunities to create and share information shaping the digital transformation of the agriculture and food system, and thus potentially fostering its reorganisation? This report focuses on cross-border trade aspects along the global agriculture and food value chain, and looks at how changes brought about by digital technologies can influence who participates in the value chain, where value added is created, and how value is distributed between actors in the chain. However, it is not only changes in the agriculture and food sector from digital technologies that matters, but also the digital transformation of other actors in the global value chain (GVC) such as support services, logistics and governments. Digital technologies present a potential to reduce trade and transaction costs, including those related to identifying and negotiating a deal, proving compliance with standards and to delivering products across borders quickly and efficiently. |
| Keywords: | agricultural trade, agriculture and food standards, Digital technology, market access, SPS, traceability, trade facilitation |
| JEL: | Q16 Q17 Q13 F13 |
| Date: | 2019–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:agraaa:122-en&r=all |
| By: | Jakub Growiec |
| Abstract: | The article proposes a new conceptual framework for capturing production, R&D, and economic growth in aggregative models which extend their horizon into the digital era. Two key factors of production are considered: hardware, including physical labor, traditional physical capital and programmable hardware, and software, encompassing human cognitive work, pre-programmed software, and artificial intelligence (AI). Hardware and software are complementary in production whereas their constituent components are mutually substitutable. The framework generalizes, among others, the standard model of production with capital and labor, models with capital–skill complementarity and skill-biased technical change, and unified growth theories embracing also the pre-industrial period. It offers a clear conceptual distinction between mechanization and automation as well as between robotization and the development of AI. It delivers sharp, economically intuitive predictions for long-run growth, the evolution of factor shares, and the direction of technical change |
| Keywords: | production function, R&D equation, technological progress, complementarity, automation, artificial intelligence. |
| JEL: | O30 O40 O41 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2019042&r=all |
| By: | Deri, Deri; Amri, Amri; Zufriady, Zufriady |
| Abstract: | The competition that always arises in the business world encourages the emergence of new thoughts that can build products or services that provide more value to customers. This study aims to examine the effect of the organizational image, pricing, service quality on student satisfaction, the sample in this study were 193 students. Path analysis is used to test the relationship between variables in the form of causality. The results of the study concluded that there were significant effects of organizational image variables, pricing, and service quality simultaneously on student satisfaction. However, partial testing shows that the only service has a significant effect on student satisfaction. The results of this study should be a reference for researchers who will conduct further research. In addition, it is also necessary to learn more about other independent and bound variables to examine. |
| Keywords: | Organizational Image, Pricing, Service Quality, Satisfaction, Loyalty |
| JEL: | M30 |
| Date: | 2018–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92156&r=all |
| By: | Catherine Viot (SAF - Laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon); Caroline Bayart (SAF - Laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon); Agnes Lancini (SAF - Laboratoire de Sciences Actuarielle et Financière - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon) |
| Abstract: | The development of the Internet Of Things (IOT) could be considered as the third period of the digital transformation. More and more Smart Connected-Products (SCPs) are used, whether in the private or public domain. And many different sectors, as automotive, health or insurance develop such products, which can gather, analyze and generate data thanks to sensors and connection. If companies look like interested by this business opportunity, the adoption of SCP is not obvious to consumers. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and on the concept of Consumer innovativeness, this study proposes a model to better understand the intention to adopt SCP. To test our proposed research model, we used an online survey to collect data from a convenient sample of young people from generation Z. According to the results, it seems that intention to adopt SCPs depends on feelings about this decision (subjective norms), personal attitudes towards SCPs and cognitive innovativeness (intellectually interesting and challenging products). But as far as the intention to adopt SCPs linked to insurer is concerned, the subjective norms and the cognitive innovativeness are identified as two main variables. |
| Keywords: | Brand Trust,Smart connected products,Theory of planned behavior,Insurance 2 |
| Date: | 2017–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01991186&r=all |
| By: | René Böheim; Franz Hackl; Michael Hölzl-Leitner |
| Abstract: | We analyze price dispersion using panel data from a large price comparison site. We use past pricing behavior to instrument for potential endogeneity that might result from the selection of firms to certain product markets. We find that greater price adjustment costs result in greater price dispersion. Although the impact of price adjustment costs on price dispersion became weaker over time, the causal effect of price adjustment costs on price dispersion is still present at the end of the period. Our results are robust to many alternative empirical speciffications. We also test a range of alternative explanations of price dispersion, such as search cost, service differentiation, obfuscation, vertical restraints, and market structure. |
| Keywords: | price dispersion, price adjustment costs, menu costs, e-commerce |
| JEL: | D40 L11 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2019_04&r=all |
| By: | Konstantin A. Kholodilin (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Mariia A. Maksimova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study focuses on the ground transportation system and its impact on the rents in 30 of Russia’s largest cities. It also compares the effect with subway transit networks. The data set includes rent information from an all-Russia online advertisement website Avito and various measures of proximity to the public transit network stops (including subways for cities with them). The analysis is conducted using linear hedonic models. The results show that the ground transportation proximity is important for housing rent formation in both cities with and without subways, although the effect for subway stations is greater in comparison. Nevertheless, the benefits of a denser ground transportation system are high and stable, whereas the distance to the closest bus stop and the number within the walking distance are important solely for cities with a subway system and without it, respectively. |
| Keywords: | housing rent; public transit; subway; hedonic analysis; largest Russian cities. |
| JEL: | C43 O18 R38 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:212/ec/2019&r=all |
| By: | Milene Simone Tessarin; Wilson Suzigan, Joaquim Jose Martins Guilhoto |
| Abstract: | This article analyze the innovative effort of the manufacturing companies that cooperated to innovate from those that innovated without cooperation, segmented by technological categories and origin of controlling capital. Special data with information’s from Pintec/IBGE has been used. The contribution is contrasting companies that innovated with and without cooperation, since this comparison has not yet been studied. Results showed that cooperation is decisive to differentiate innovative efforts, regardless of the technological category. The origin of controlling capital did not represent a distinctive factor. The cooperation was mainly made with customers and suppliers, and another group company overseas to foreign firms, despite the literature focus on cooperation with universities and research institutes. It is concluded that innovating with cooperation generates better innovative efforts, thus, stimulate companies to cooperate can increase Brazilian innovation |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Cooperation to innovate; Manufacturing; Technological intensity; Industrial development. |
| JEL: | O32 P13 L10 |
| Date: | 2019–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spa:wpaper:2019wpecon06&r=all |
| By: | Ngepah, Nicholas; Espoir, Delphin Kamanda |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the role of initial poverty and inequality in predicting the speed at which poverty responds to changes in mean income. The study sought to answer whether the initial levels of poverty and inequality muffle the speed at which growth is effective in reducing poverty and whether the initial levels of poverty are more of a binding constraints to the effects of economic growth on poverty reduction than initial levels of inequality. We used an annualised panel data (at USD1.9/day) of 112 developing countries segregated into six world regions, for the period 1981-2013. An autoregressive growth-poverty model is developed and system GMM techniques are employed. Over and above the specifications of the well-known growth-poverty identity model, the autoregressive model subjects the change in poverty to its earlier shocks. We first replicated the estimates within the growth-poverty identity model and the results support the previous findings on the negative effect of high initial inequality and high ratio poverty line over mean income on the poverty effects of growth in mean income. However, when changes in poverty were subjected to earlier shocks within the autoregressive framework, the initial poverty is found to be the most binding constraint of the poverty reduction effects of growth. As such, the results support the dominant role of high initial poverty over high initial inequality in predicting the speed at which poverty responds to changes in mean income. The autoregressive framework suggests that poverty reduction policies should be differentiated according to regional specifics. Growth versus inequality policies as measures of improving poverty reduction efforts cannot be used as a “one-size-fits-all” approach. The cross-regional variations in income and inequality elasticities suggests that redistribution policies could be more fruitful in achieving poverty reduction in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and in East Asia and Pacific. However, for regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, growth-boosting measures must triumph over redistribution for sustainable poverty reduction |
| Keywords: | : income elasticity, inequality elasticity, initial poverty, initial inequality, poverty headcount, poverty elasticity, dynamic panel data |
| JEL: | I32 O1 |
| Date: | 2018–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92136&r=all |