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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | M.T. Musakwa (University of South Africa); N.M. Odhiambo (University of South Africa) |
| Abstract: | This study examined the causal relationship between ICT, income inequality and economic growth in South Africa using data from 1990 to 2021. Three measures of ICT were used in the study, namely fixed telephone lines subscription, mobile cellular subscriptions and the proportion of people using the internet to the total population. Employing the autoregressive distributed lag approach, the study found a unidirectional causal flow from income inequality to ICT across all measures of ICT employed. Another unidirectional causal flow from economic growth to ICT was found in the short run when ICT was measured by fixed telephone lines and mobile cellular. When internet access was used as a measure of ICT, a bidirectional causality between internet access and economic growth in the short run and a unidirectional causal flow from internet access to economic growth was confirmed. Across all three measures of ICT, no causal relationship was confirmed between economic growth and income inequality. The study points to the importance of economic growth in increasing ICT access and the crucial role that internet access has on economic growth in South Africa. Policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, inequality, information and technology (ICT), economic growth, autoregressive distributed lag |
| JEL: | D31 O47 O33 |
| Date: | 2024–12–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afa:wpaper:wp092024 |
| By: | Nidhaleddine Ben Cheikh; Christophe Rault |
| Abstract: | Using a sample of 67 countries, this article examines how financial inclusion, among other factors, shapes the transition to inclusive and sustainable growth. First, we analyze the heterogeneous and asymmetric relationship between inclusiveness and its main determinants using recent panel quantile regression techniques. Our results suggest that the distributional effects of financial inclusion, institutional quality, and information and communication technology (ICT) diffusion are statistically significant only in the lower tail of the conditional distribution. Although both financial inclusion and ICT diffusion are detrimental to inclusive growth, institutional quality is conducive to greater shared prosperity. Next, we examine the existence of a mediating effect in the process of inclusiveness using non-linear panel threshold modelling. Our results highlight the mediating role of financial inclusion in achieving more inclusive and sustainable growth. While ICT infrastructure negatively impacts growth inclusiveness at low financial inclusion levels, a positive relationship is observed when financial affordability exceeds a certain threshold. Policymakers are called upon to harness the combined impacts of financial inclusion, governance quality, and ICTs to ensure inclusive economic growth. |
| Keywords: | inclusive growth, financial inclusion, non-linear panel data modelling |
| JEL: | C23 O11 O16 O43 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12615 |
| By: | Giuseppe Pulito; Mariola Pytlikova; Sarah Schroeder; Magnus Lodefalk |
| Abstract: | Using two waves of nationally representative Danish firm surveys linked to employer-employee administrative registers, we study how adoption varies across artificial intelligence (AI) and related advanced technologies. We show that AI adoption is highly technology-specific. While firm size and digital infrastructure predict adoption broadly, workforce composition operates through distinct channels: STEM-educated workforces predict core AI adoption, whereas non-STEM university-educated workforces are associated with generative AI adoption, indicating different human capital complementarities. The factors associated with adoption differ from those predicting deployment breadth: firm size and digital maturity matter for both, whereas workforce composition primarily predicts adoption alone. Machine learning and natural language processing are deployed across multiple business functions, whereas other advanced technologies remain concentrated in specific operational domains. Individual-level evidence provides a foundation for these patterns, with awareness of workplace AI usage concentrated among managers and high-skilled workers. Self-reported AI knowledge is higher among younger and more educated individuals. Finally, commonly used occupational AI exposure measures vary substantially in their ability to predict observed adoption, with benchmark-based measures outperforming patent-based and LLM-focused alternatives. These findings show that treating AI as a monolithic category obscures economically meaningful variation in who adopts, what they deploy, and how well existing measures capture it. |
| Keywords: | Artificial Intelligence; Technology Adoption; Digitalisation; Human capital; AI Exposure Measures |
| JEL: | D24 J23 J62 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26089 |
| By: | Caravaggio, Nicola; Resce, Giuliano; Santangelo, Agapito Emanuele |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether public investments in digital infrastructure improve citizen-facing government performance. We combine administrative data on the staggered rollout of a large-scale digitalization program with high-frequency social-media data for Italian municipalities, using online communication as a proxy for public service delivery. Exploiting variation in treatment timing, we estimate causal effects across access, usage, and outcomes. Digital investments increase municipalities' online presence and communication activity: treated municipalities are more likely to adopt social media, post more frequently, and generate higher aggregate engagement. However, improvements in effectiveness are limited in the short run. Engagement per post remains unchanged, and gains in communication quality, measured by readability, emerge only gradually. These findings suggest that while digital investments expand activity, translating them into effective communication requires time and complementary capabilities. |
| Keywords: | Digital transformation; Structural change; Public sector digitalization; Technological adoption; Digital divide; Government communication; High-frequency data. |
| JEL: | O33 O38 H75 C23 |
| Date: | 2026–04–27 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mol:ecsdps:esdp26104 |
| By: | Fernando E. Alvarez; David Argente; Diana Van Patten |
| Abstract: | We study the resilience of payment systems to large disruptions in digital infrastructure caused by natural disasters and outages. While advanced economies have rapidly shifted toward electronic payments, these systems depend critically on electricity and information technology, raising concerns about their reliability during crises. We combine high-frequency county-level electricity outage data with detailed weather records, transaction-level expenditure data, household scanner data, and new representative surveys from the United States, Spain, and Sweden. Event-study evidence shows that natural disasters---especially hurricanes---generate persistent outages that sharply reduce expenditures. Natural disasters by themselves do not alter households' choice of payment method; instead, shifts toward cash arise through three channels: electronic payment methods become unavailable, households increase cash holdings for precautionary reasons, and cash is subsequently spent once available ("cash burn"). Consistent with these mechanisms, payment composition shifts markedly: spending rises before disasters due to stockpiling, largely financed with credit, while after disasters digital payments decline and cash usage rises, particularly in areas experiencing outages. Survey evidence confirms that nearly half of consumers are unable to use their preferred electronic payment during outages and that cash serves as a key fallback. Exploiting variation in cash holdings across households and locations, we find that greater access to cash increases the likelihood of completing transactions during outages and mitigates expenditure declines. Complementary survey evidence and the immediate response to our information treatment show that outages and official guidance increase desired cash holdings. Finally, we embed an RCT in the NielsenIQ panel: roughly half of panel households receive authoritative preparedness guidance, and we follow their realized purchases through the subsequent hurricane season. This design provides a clean framework for causal identification of whether greater cash preparedness smooths consumption during weather shocks. Together, the observational, survey, and experimental components of the paper show that cash plays a critical role in sustaining economic activity during payment-system disruptions and point to the value of offline-capable payment instruments, including CBDCs, in increasingly digital economies. |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35115 |
| By: | Arnab K. Basu; Nancy H. Chau; Gary Lin |
| Abstract: | Why has internal migration remained low, even as advances in communication technologies have reduced information frictions in relocation decisions? This paper develops and estimates a spatial model of mobility that incorporates status quo bias in locational preferences, multilateral search frictions, and comoving regional unemployment. Using historical proxies for search frictions, we identify and recover county-level estimates of status quo bias across the United States. Status quo bias is spatially heterogeneous and highest in states containing large urban job centers. Translating these estimates into expected-utility, geographic-distance, and state-border equivalents indicates that variation in status quo bias generates migration frictions comparable to large geographic and institutional barriers. Status quo bias also exhibits strong persistence over time, a robust relationship to migration dynamics, and associations with a range of non-wage individual- and community-level correlates of locational preferences (e.g., housing, climate, and religious and political orientations). These patterns suggest that status quo bias partly reflects place-based preferences shaped by individuals' residential histories. |
| Keywords: | Migration gravity, status quo bias, and job search networks |
| JEL: | J61 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26104 |