We develop a detailed model to evaluate the necessary investment requirements to achieve affordable universal broadband. The results indicate that approximately $418 billion needs to be mobilized to connect all unconnected citizens globally (targeting 40-50 GB/Month per user with 95 percent reliability). The bulk of additional investment is for emerging market economies (73 percent) and low-income developing countries (24 percent). We also find that if the data consumption level is lowered to 10-20 GB/Month per user, the total cost decreases by up to about half, whereas raising data consumption to 80-100 GB/Month per user leads to a cost increase of roughly 90 percent relative to the baseline. Moreover, a 40 percent cost decrease occurs when varying the peak hour quality of service level from the baseline 95 percent reliability, to only 50 percent reliability. To conclude, broadband policy assessments should be explicit about the quantity of data and the reliability of service provided to users. Failure to do so will lead to inaccurate estimates and, ultimately, to poor broadband policy decisions.

While much economic policy presumes that more information infrastructure yields higher economic returns, little empirical work measures the magnitudes of these returns. We examine investment by local exchange telephone companies in fiber optic cable, ISDN lines and signal seven software, infrastructure which plays an essential role in bringing digital technology to local telephone networks. We estimate the elasticity of the derived demand for infrastructure investment faced by local exchange companies, controlling for factors such as local economic activity and the political disposition of state regulators. Our model postulates a regulated profit maximizing local exchange firm and a regulatory agency with predetermined political leanings in favor of consumer prices or firm profits. The model accounts for variation in state regulation and local economic conditions. In all our estimates we find that consumer demand is sensitive to investment in modern infrastructure, particularly as represented by fiber optic cable. Our estimates imply that infrastructure investment is responsible for a substantial fraction of the recent growth in consumer surplus and business revenue in local telecommunication services.

The social rate of return of mobile broadband infrastructure is an important indicator for informing the allocation of public and private capital to the telecommunications sector, yet no estimates are currently available in the literature. The consensus in the literature is that to estimate the social rate of return of infrastructure one must combine two components: first, the value added of the infrastructure to the economy (or numerator of the rate of return); and second, the incremental cost of infrastructure expansion.In recent years, significant literature has begun to accumulate measuring the output elasticity of broadband infrastructure (Vergara Cobos and Malasquez, 2023). Using cross-country panel data econometrics and micro-econometric approaches, reliable estimation of the marginal product associated with rising service penetration is possible. On the other hand, there has been substantial progress in modeling the global cost of mobile broadband infrastructure deployment (Oughton, 2023), enabling evaluation of system marginal cost at the country level. This paper brings both strands of the literature together to estimate the social rate of return for investments in (primarily) 4G mobile networks, adapting a methodology first used by Canning and Bennathan (2000) for the electricity and transport sectors. The paper contributes to the literature by exploring how both the marginal product and the marginal cost of mobile broadband infrastructure investment evolve as penetration rises. We enhance this previous method in two ways. Firstly, by estimating the causal effect of mobile broadband infrastructure on economic output (GDP) via a General Method of Moments - Instrumental Variable (GMM-IV) technique. Secondly, by calculating the marginal cost of mobile broadband infrastructure using demand forecasting and remote sensing, following Oughton (2023).The social rate of return of mobile broadband investment is of high importance because it informs the cost-benefit analysis of future investment policy decisions. Consistent with economic theory, the paper finds that the marginal product of mobile broadband infrastructure declines at higher levels of penetration, while the marginal cost increases. This leads to very high rates of return (40-60%) for investments at very low levels of penetration (10%), declining rapidly to modest rates of return (

Digital divide across countries and within countries continues to persist and even increased when the quality of internet connection is considered. The note shows that many governments have not been able to harness the full potential of digitalization. Governments could play important role to facilitate digital adoption by intervening both on supply (investing in infrastructure) and demand side (increase internet affordability). The note also documents significant dividends from digital adoption for revenue collection and spending efficiency, and for outcomes in education, health and social safety nets. The note also emphasizes that digitalization is not a substitute for good governance and that comprehensive reform plans embedded in National Digital Strategies (NDS) combined with legal and institutional reforms are needed to ensure that governments can reap full benefits from digitalization and manage the risks appropriately.

Nauru faces structural challenges due to its small size and remoteness, and is highly dependent on imports. The narrow revenue base comprises fishing license fees, residual phosphate processing, and revenue from the Regional Processing Center (RPC). Nauru is vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, as the population inhabit in a narrow coastal area. The health and economic impact of the pandemic has been limited in Nauru, thanks to successful vaccination and containment strategies

Turkey offers an interesting case study, both when it comes to the practice and the regulation of digitalization, as it combines a Western economic and legal system with an emerging country approach to digitalization. This co-edited volume examines the history, policies, economics, and various regulations of digitalization in Turkey. The chapters provide a comprehensive overview of how digitalization has developed in Turkey and how digitalization has come to be regulated, inspired by EU legislation yet with a “Turkish touch”. It explores the take up of digitalization by industry, society, and government, before delving into examples from FinTech and cryptocurrency, to social media and e-commerce, and yielding lessons for comparable emerging countries. Covering all the relevant aspects of digitalization, this book will be of interest to academics and students, particularly to those with an interest in innovation, economics of digitalization, policy, and regulation.

Corruption often flourishes in times of uncertainty and crisis. When institutions and oversight are weak, and public trust low, corruption can thrive and undermine how societies respond to the crisis. Covid-19 brought this issue into sharp focus, and this book uncovers some of the problems experienced across the globe and, crucially, explains how organizations and countries can strengthen their anti-corruption systems to prevent problems in the future. The book has been created by the members of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education group on anti-corruption and brings together top international experts to consolidate the lessons from the Covid-19 crisis in order to improve transparency, integrity, trust, and governance in the future. Cybersecurity and cybercrime related to the pandemic are a particular focus. These factors are essential to social and economic order. Practice-oriented, each chapter offers examples of methods, approaches, tools, and cases which can be used for anti-corruption teaching, policy, and corporate initiatives. With insights and cases from right across the globe, the book will be of interest to NGOs, policymakers, organizational leaders, students, and researchers looking to foster accountability, integrity, and transparency across organizations in times of crisis.