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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Yulong Chen; Liyuan Ma; Peter F. Orazem (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University) |
| Abstract: | The federal government has invested $60 billion thus far in rural broadband deployment, and, recently, FCC chairman Ajit Pai launched the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which will add up to $20.4 billion to further expand broadband in underserved rural areas. However, broadband expansion may not reverse the decades-long population shift from rural to urban markets and it does not affect all economic sectors equally. Chen, Ma, and Orazem look at the overall effect of broadband on net rural firm entry and find that the construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, real estate, and arts and entertainment industries see the most positive benefits, but the broadband effect is too small to reverse the 70-year long rural to urban shift in population and economic activity. |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:apr-spring-2020-4&r= |
| By: | Antonin Bergeaud; Clément Malgouyres; Clément Mazet-Sonilhac; Sara Signorelli |
| Abstract: | Domestic outsourcing has grown substantially in developed countries over the past two decades. This paper addresses the question of the technological drivers of this phenomenon by studying the impact of the staggered diffusion of broadband internet in France during the 2000s. Our results confirm that broadband technology increases firm productivity and the relative demand for high-skill workers. Further, we show that broadband internet led firms to outsource some non-core occupations to service contractors, both in the low and high-skill segments. In both cases, we find that employment related to these occupations became increasingly concentrated in firms specializing in these activities, and was less likely to be performed in-house within firms specialized in other activities. As a result, after the arrival of broadband internet, establishments become increasingly homogeneous in their occupational composition. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that high-skill workers experience salary gains from being outsourced, while low-skill workers lose out. |
| Keywords: | broadband, Firm Organisation, Labour Market, Outsourcing |
| JEL: | G14 G21 O33 |
| Date: | 2021–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:264-en&r= |
| By: | Kang, Gusang (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Jang, Yungshin (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Oh, Taehyun (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Rim, Jeewoon (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)) |
| Abstract: | In the era of inter-industry convergence, abuses of substantial market power by large digital platforms such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, and their increasing number of acquisitions towards small- and medium-sized tech-firms suspicious of eliminating potential competitors are recent representative issues in the ICT sector. Alternative competition policies have been discussed to effectively deal with those firms' anti-competitive behaviors in a changing environment of competition such as a digital platform economy instead of traditional policies. In this regard, we examine the U.S. and EU competition policy responses to ICT firms' anti-competitive behaviors in order to provide policy implications to our competition authority. According to our case studies, the U.S. and EU competition and legal authorities consider characteristics of the digital platform economy when they conclude whether firm behaviors are anti-competitive. Furthermore, we find that Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp leads to a tipping effect and harms market competition. Given these results, we suggest that our competition authority has to consider the balance between innovation and competition when they implement competition policies in the era of inter-industry convergence. |
| Keywords: | U.S.; EU; convergence; competition; ICT |
| Date: | 2021–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kiepwe:2021_021&r= |
| By: | Tarkang, Marymagdaline; Yunji, Ruth; Asongu, Simplice; Alola, Uju |
| Abstract: | The mobile telecommunication (telecom) sector has become the basic source of information now-a-days especially in Cameroon. It is used to transfer and deliver information through voice, video, data, graphics, and more at perpetually increasing speeds. The quality of mobile services does not only impact the attraction of new customers but also to maintain the existing ones. The study uses relationship marketing theory and a quantitative and cross-sectional method with 200 respondents. Information was obtained from users of MTN and Orange mobile telecommunication networks. The analyses were done using SPSS version 20. Tangibility, reliability, and assurance dimensions of staff service quality showed a positive relationship with customer loyalty in mobile telecom companies in Cameroon. The findings also highlight the influence of service quality dimensions on customer loyalty in the mobile telecom companies of the country. This study complements to extant literature by examining the influence of the five service quality dimensions; tangibility, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy on consumer loyalty or retention in the mobile telecommunication companies in Cameroon. |
| Keywords: | Tangibility, Reliability, ICT, Empathy, Responsiveness, Assurance, customer loyalty |
| JEL: | L96 O1 O55 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:110610&r= |
| By: | Janice C. Eberly; Jonathan Haskel; Paul Mizen |
| Abstract: | The impact of an economic shock depends both on its severity and the resilience of the economic response. Resilience can include the ability to relocate factors, for example, even when new technologies or skills are not yet at the ready. This resilience per se buffers production and has an economic value, which we estimate. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a widespread decline in recorded GDP. Yet, as catastrophic as the collapse was, it was buffered by an unprecedented and spontaneous deployment of what we call “Potential Capital,” the dwelling/residential capital and connective technologies used alongside working from home. Together potential capital and labor working from home provided additional output margins and capacity. We estimate the contribution of this capital, and the remote work that it facilitated, to have roughly halved the decline in GDP in the US reducing the fall in GDP to 9.4 log points in 2020Q2 at the trough of the recession. Similar effects are seen in the 6 OECD countries for which data are available, output fell by 14 log points, but would have fallen by 26 log points had only workplace inputs been available. Accounting for the contribution of “Potential Capital” also revises downwards estimated total productivity gains in the business sector during the pandemic from 8 log points to 5 log points in 2020Q2. We also find an output elasticity of domestic non-dwellings capital to be similar to that of workplace ICT capital, reflecting its role as productive capital. Turning to the future, changes in working from home depend upon relative costs, relative technologies and, crucially, the elasticity of substitution between home and work tasks. We estimate that that elasticity to be more than unity, meaning that the growth of ICT will raise the share of work done remotely. |
| JEL: | E01 E22 O47 |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29431&r= |
| By: | Choi, Wonseok (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Yang, Pyeongseob (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Pak, Jinhee (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Kim, Joohye (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Choi, Jiwon (KOREA INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY (KIEP)); Zhao, Xinwang (China Manufacturing Think Thank Institute) |
| Abstract: | As China's recent industrial advancement has changed the trade structure between Korea and China from a complementary relationship to a more competitive one, the need for research on Chinese industrial policy has increased. Therefore, this study aims to analyze and evaluate changes in major industrial policies and industrial structures following China's reform and opening. We also analyze changes in the trade structure between Korea and China due to changes in China's industrial structure. Based on these analyses, we propose the following policy implications for Korea. Under the U.S.-China trade friction, China is expected to focus on a powerful science and technology strategy, promotion of the digital economy, "new infrastructure" construction, and the China Standard 2035 strategy. Korea needs to diversify its export market in the information and communication technology sector, prepare Korea's industrial technology protection system, and expand its participation in China's domestic market while diversifying global supply chains. Second, a response strategy is needed considering China's import growth rate in advanced manufacturing and to improve Korea's trade competitiveness. Finally, China's industrial policy is expected to evolve from simple incubation measures to a comprehensive strategy brought into harmony with the market, and further research on the creation of Chinese industrial ecosystems through policy and interaction between companies is expected. |
| Keywords: | China; Korea; opening; industrial; trade friction |
| Date: | 2021–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kiepwe:2021_024&r= |