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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Bilgin, Nuriye Melisa; Ottaviano, Gianmarco |
| Abstract: | We study how digital infrastructure relaxes constraints on the diffusion and economic impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Using administrative data and a nationally representative enterprise survey from Turkey (2021–2024), we document significant disparities in AI adoption. Adoption is concentrated among large firms and in regions with high-speed broadband and proximity to data centers, particularly for software-intensive and cloud-based applications. To identify causal effects, we exploit the staggered expansion of Turkey’s national natural gas pipeline network, which serves as a conduit for fiber-optic deployment. Because pipeline routing is determined by energy distribution priorities rather than digital demand, it provides plausibly exogenous variation in connectivity. Difference-in-differences estimates show that improved connectivity significantly increases AI adoption, particularly for software-intensive technologies and among small and medium-sized enterprises. Instrumental-variable estimates indicate that infrastructure-driven AI adoption raises labor productivity and export intensity while shifting labor composition toward ICT-related roles. These findings highlight digital infrastructure as a primary determinant of both the pace of AI diffusion and its resulting economic returns. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence; Digital infrastructure; Broadband; Technology diffusion; Firm productivity; Cloud computing |
| JEL: | O33 L86 D24 J24 O14 R12 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21385 |
| By: | Kaitila, Ville |
| Abstract: | Abstract Finland’s share of the total value of global goods exports decreased from 0.72 per cent to 0.35 per cent between 2002 and 2024. The decline in the market share can be divided into three roughly equal parts: forest industry products, mobile phones, and other products. The market shares of older industrialised countries have generally been eroded by weak performance compared to emerging economies. However, most other industrialised countries have been able to compensate for this decline with a favourable product mix in terms of global demand developments. In contrast, Finland’s export product structure has been unfavourable from the perspective of global demand. As a result, the combined effect of performance and product structure on the overall change in Finland’s world market share of exports has been the second most negative among the 42 largest exporting countries. According to the results, export performance in European countries has been supported particularly by investments in machinery and equipment, ICT and intangible investments, as well as a stronger presence of multinational companies. The negative impact of Finland’s export product structure on overall market shares emphasizes the need for the renewal of companies and the products they produce, along with a stronger understanding of the markets and their development. |
| Keywords: | Goods exports, Market shares, Export performance, Competitiveness, Investments, European Union |
| JEL: | F10 F14 F15 F43 |
| Date: | 2026–06–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:briefs:185 |
| By: | Bergh, Andreas (Lund University and); Anzén Ekman, Christina (Lund University); Moricz, Sara (Sensative) |
| Abstract: | How do municipalities use social media? For place marketing, civic information, or dialogue with citizens? We address this question by classifying 35, 930 tweets from 15 municipal Twitter accounts in the Skåne region of Sweden, using a machine learning algorithm trained on manually annotated data. Tweets are classified along two dimensions: whether they contain place marketing content and whether they contain civic information, yielding four categories. Our findings show that place marketing content declined substantially over the period studied, from nearly 40 percent of tweets in 2009 to just above 20 percent in 2018. In contrast, civic information and direct dialogue with citizens increased. These results suggest that the rise of social media has not trapped municipalities in a zero-sum place marketing arms race. Instead, municipalities appeared to be using Twitter increasingly as a channel for civic communication, with implications for how scholars and practitioners understand the evolving role of social media in place branding. |
| Keywords: | Place marketing; Place branding; Social media; Municipalities; Machine learning; Twitter; Sweden |
| JEL: | H83 M31 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–06–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1563 |
| By: | Gersbach, Hans; Kravchenko, Egor; Martinelli, Cesar |
| Abstract: | We study how new information technologies affect democratic decision-making in a Condorcet model with costly information acquisition. Voters endogenously choose whether to become informed. Technological change alters both information costs and signal precision, with nontrivial effects on equilibrium participation and collective accuracy. Lower information costs can reduce information acquisition and collective accuracy only when the electorate is odd, a phenomenon we call the odd-electorate paradox. Under uniqueness of equilibrium, however, lower costs increase participation and improve collective accuracy when initial information acquisition is sufficiently low. Improvements in signal quality need not increase equilibrium information acquisition and may even reduce collective accuracy through equilibrium responses. In large electorates, the fraction of informed voters converges to zero, while the number of informed voters converges to a Poisson distribution. Democratic accuracy may therefore rest on sparse expertise and socially aggregated information. |
| Keywords: | epistemic democracy; Costly information acquisition; Voting; Majority rule; Pivotality; equilibrium participation; Artificial intelligence |
| JEL: | D72 D83 C72 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21534 |
| By: | Florian Mudekereza |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an epistemic foundation for aggregating sets of probabilistic beliefs by retaining only shared beliefs. It develops a model of belief formation under information-acquisition costs and capacity constraints. In this model, different information technologies rationalize different belief-aggregation rules, such as the familiar linear, geometric, power, and multiplicative pooling. Since the ranking of uncertain policies depends on these aggregation rules, failing to base collective beliefs on the underlying technologies can cause welfare losses. An application to financial markets demonstrates how these technologies translate conflicting beliefs into equilibrium prices. |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2606.11600 |
| By: | He, Zhiguo; Huang, Jing; Parlatore Siritto, Cecilia |
| Abstract: | We develop a credit market competition model that distinguishes between information span (breadth) and signal precision (quality), capturing the rise of fintech/non-bank lending where traditionally subjective (“soft†) information is transformed into objective (“hard†) data. Borrower quality depends on multidimensional fundamentals, assessed through hard or soft signals. Two banks observe private hard signals, but only the specialized bank receives a soft signal. Expanding the span of hard information enables the non-specialized bank to evaluate characteristics previously only available to the specialist, and reducing its winner’s curse. By contrast, greater precision of hard signals strengthens the specialized bank’s informational advantage. |
| Keywords: | Banking competition; Information technology; Fintech; Specialized Lending; Winner's curse |
| JEL: | G21 L13 L52 O33 O36 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21310 |