nep-ict New Economics Papers
on Information and Communication Technologies
Issue of 2020‒11‒02
ten papers chosen by
Marek Giebel
Universität Dortmund

  1. Concentration of the Mobile Telecommunications Markets and Countries' Competitiveness By David Bardey; Danilo Aristizábal; Bibiana Sáenz; Santiago Gómez
  2. Teachers’ training and use of information and communications technology in the face of the COVID-19 crisis By OECD
  3. Internal digitalization and tax-efficient decision making By Klein, Daniel; Ludwig, Christopher A.; Nicolay, Katharina
  4. Growth factors in developed countries: A 1960-2019 growth accounting decomposition By Gilbert Cette; Aurélien Devillard; Vincenzo Spiezia
  5. BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY USED BY ENTREPRENEURS IN ONLINE TRADE By Lucian Gheorghe Nastase
  6. Sources of Comparative Advantage in Data-Related Services By Erik van der Marel
  7. Position in inter-organizational networks and profitability and growth potential By Fumihiko Isada
  8. The long wave of the Internet By Pietro Bonaccorsi; Massimo Moggi
  9. A silent revolution: How central bank statistics have changed in the last 25 years By Riccardo De Bonis; Matteo Piazza
  10. DIGITALIZATION OF THE BUYING PROCESS. SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON THE CONSUMER By Onetiu Daniel Darius

  1. By: David Bardey; Danilo Aristizábal; Bibiana Sáenz; Santiago Gómez
    Abstract: Developing a database that includes 59 countries, our study sheds light on the role of mobile telecommunications markets' concentration on countries' competitiveness. Performing several estimations and using an instrumental variable that aims to explain the degree of concentration in mobile phone markets, we find that the higher is the concentration in this industry, the lower is the use of the information technology and communication (ICT). On the other hand, we also find that the use of ITC is positively correlated to countries' competitiveness. Thus, our results reveal positive spillover effects of the mobile phone industry on countries' competitiveness and suggest that all policies that aim to reduce concentration and market power in the mobile phone industry is welcomed.
    Keywords: Market structure, Concentration, Competitiveness, Telecommunications industry.
    JEL: L11 O33
    Date: 2020–10–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:018482&r=all
  2. By: OECD
    Abstract: The COVID-19 outbreak has caused one of the greatest disruptions to education witnessed in recent years. In an attempt to prevent the circulation of the virus and to ensure the right to education, many governments quickly transitioned from traditional face-to-face instruction to some form of distance learning. To ensure learning continuity during the school closures, many teachers around the globe were tasked with moving their lessons on line.There is some evidence that education systems are moving to a “new normal” where traditional face-to-face instruction will be complemented by some form of distance learning. Even though data collection was conducted before the COVID-19 outbreak, the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS 2018) offers some useful information to illuminate why some teachers are more likely to let students use ICT for projects or class work than others, and to explore the factors behind whether teachers take up professional development activities that include ICT skills for teaching.
    Keywords: COVID-19, ICT, teachers, teaching, training
    Date: 2020–10–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaah:35-en&r=all
  3. By: Klein, Daniel; Ludwig, Christopher A.; Nicolay, Katharina
    Abstract: Our study investigates firms' internal digitalizationas a crucial foundation for timely, data-driven decision making. We evaluate the association between digital infrastructure and improved decision making intax planning decisions to analyze if the benefits of digitalization expand beyond firms' core business functions. The novel use of a survey that identifies European firms' digital infrastructure over the period from 2005 to 2016 allows us to create an index of IT sophistication. Using this index, we extend prior approaches and observe the effectiveness of tax planning decisions in terms of a firm's ability to exploit income shifting incentives. Our empirical analysis confirms the prediction that digitalized firms respond more efficiently to income shifting incentives. Further, we provide evidence that firms with sophisticated IT are more reactive to shocks in the income shifting incentive than non-digital firms. Our results suggest that internal digitalization allows firms to efficiently monitor and manage internal processes and to strategically price internal transactions. With this work, we are the first to document the association of digitalization and the performance of firms' support functions.
    Keywords: Digital Transformation,Digitalization,Firm Performance,Decision Making,Multinational Corporations,Business Taxation,Information Technology,Profit Shifting
    JEL: O33 L25 H25 H26 K34
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:20051&r=all
  4. By: Gilbert Cette (BDF - banque de france - Banque de France, AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Aurélien Devillard (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Vincenzo Spiezia (OECD - The Organisation for Economic Coopération and Development)
    Abstract: Using a new and original database, our paper contributes to the growth accounting literature with three original aspects: first, it covers a long period from the early 60's to 2019, just before the COVID-19 crisis; second, it analyses at the country level a large set of economies (30); finally, it singles out the growth contribution of ICTs but also of robots. The original database used in our analysis covers 30 developed countries and the Euro Area over a long period allowing to develop a growth accounting approach from 1960 to 2019. This database is built at the country level. Our growth accounting approach shows that the main drivers of labor productivity growth over the whole 1960-2019 period appear to be TFP, non-ICT and non-robot capital deepening, and education. The overall contribution of ICT capital is found to be small, although we do not estimate its effect on TFP. The contribution of robots to productivity growth through the two channels (capital deepening and TFP) appears to be significant in Germany and Japan in the sub-period 1975-1995, in France and Italy in 1995-2005, and in several Eastern European countries in 2005-2019. Our findings confirm also the slowdown in TFP in most countries from at least 1995 onwards. This slowdown is mainly explained by a decrease of the contributions of the components 'others' in the capital deepening and the TFP productivity channels.
    Keywords: Growth,Productivity,ICTs,Robots
    Date: 2020–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02958226&r=all
  5. By: Lucian Gheorghe Nastase (Valahia University of Targoviste)
    Abstract: Blockchain technology is used by entrepreneurs as an inovative tool in online trade so that they can handle the problem of traceability of the product in the management of the supply chain. This research want to be a cross-border between blockchain, ecommerce all made in the entrepreneurial environement. In the end it will be a set of methods and algorithms that are developed for the information encryption and for anticounterfeiting. There will be presented algorithms and methods to show a complete and working solution, which are evaluated by applying to several typical problems and attack cases. The effectiveness, extendibility, security, implementation and governance issues of applying these algorithms,methods, solutions are also discussed. This research contributes to the theoretical and practical literatures on blockchain technology, cross-border e-commerce and supply chain management research fields.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurs, Online trade, E-commerce, Blockchain technology
    JEL: L81 M41 F32
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:11113212&r=all
  6. By: Erik van der Marel
    Abstract: Does digital infrastructure increase trade benefits in services, and how large are these trade benefits? This paper uses the prevalence of countries’ data centres and secure internet servers to investigate the impact of data-related infrastructures on services trade. Data centres and internet servers facilitate the production and trade of many service sectors reliant on software technologies. Therefore, digital infrastructures are complementary sources of comparative advantage in the more data-reliant sectors. Instrumental variable regressions underline this trade impact by using as instruments a country’s exposure to natural hazards since 1900, such as earthquakes, floods and droughts. Overall, data infrastructures are an important and exogenous determinants of specialization patterns in services dependent on software.
    Keywords: Trade in services, Data centres, Internet
    JEL: F14 L86 H54
    Date: 2020–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2020/30&r=all
  7. By: Fumihiko Isada (Kansai University)
    Abstract: The purpose of this study is to empirically clarify the relationship between a company?s position in the network structure of inter-company collaboration and its profitability and growth potential. In particular, by categorizing and analyzing companies located at the center of the network, we attempted to gain insight into the generation and growth process of so-called platformer companies. According to previous research, companies that are at the center of collaboration among various companies vary by industry and product characteristics. This research focuses on the Internet of Things (IoT), which is an industry in which inter-business relationships are important for collecting and utilizing big data across industries as an object of analysis. As a research method, we extracted the text information of newspaper articles related to IoT and analyzed the transition of the relationship between companies using social network analysis. Network analysis based on newspaper article data showed the possibility of one process to grow from a niche company to a platform leader and eventually to a large company.
    Keywords: Inter-organizational network, Platform leadership, Business Ecosystem, Social network analysis, Internet of Things
    JEL: M11 O32 L14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:11713169&r=all
  8. By: Pietro Bonaccorsi; Massimo Moggi
    Abstract: The Internet technology has radically transformed the computer and communication world, with revolutionary effects on economic and social systems at a global level. Its invention is the result of a collective research effort performed by computer scientists and telecommunications, electrical, software and computer engineers tied together in a sort of loosely coupled community, nurtured by US federal and military research programs. In this work we systematically recollect and reframe the contributions from the technological, business and economic history of the Internet into the interpretive framework provided by the evolutionary theories of technical change. More specifically, we show how the Internet as we know it is the outcome of the evolutionary processes followed by multiple technological innovations both in its transport infrastructure and in the applications grown out of it.
    Keywords: Internet history; Technological Paradigms; Technological Revolutions.
    Date: 2020–10–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2020/26&r=all
  9. By: Riccardo De Bonis (Bank of Italy); Matteo Piazza (Bank of Italy)
    Abstract: This work provides a comprehensive overview of the giant leap made by European central bank statistics over the last quarter century. We illustrate, first, the work that led to a brand new set of central bank statistics for the implementation of the common monetary policy in the euro area. We then focus on the most significant developments brought up by the financial crisis and by the institutional changes that accompanied it. The final part look at challenges lying ahead for official statistics, namely how to deal with digitalization and globalization.
    Keywords: Central bank statistics, data harmonisation
    JEL: C82 E59
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_579_20&r=all
  10. By: Onetiu Daniel Darius (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timisoara)
    Abstract: Today we face many diverse and fascinating challenges, but the most intense and important challenge is to understand and shape the new technological revolution, which involves the transformation of humanity. The Internet is one of the most used advertising channels used by advertisers. Assessing the degree to which each channel contributes to marketing success and the ways in which channels influence each other remains challenging. An increasingly important topic today are the issues that concern consumer behavior. Any company wants to grow in order to become more competitive on the market, to survive the daily challenges and of course to survive the act of economic contest, which is also in a continuous digitalization. The objectives of the present research paper are the following: the analysis of the indices regarding the age categories of the respondents and their sex, in order to determine the channels that suit each market segment; determining the affirmative answers to the indices that contribute to the mapping of the consumer process on the analyzed sample. This paper is structured in two parts: a theoretical basis and an empirical analysis.?This work was co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Human Operational Program Capital 2014-2020, project number POCU / 380/6/13/125015 ?Development of entrepreneurial skills for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the field of economic sciences?
    Keywords: Social media, the buying process, digital transformation, consumer
    JEL: M31 M31 M37
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:11113221&r=all

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