Openness as Infrastructure

Openness at the layer of cultural works and data is the key to the data infrastructure we need to accelerate science. This article lays out three key elements of data infrastructure - collaboration, classification, and openness - which draw us inevitably towards the long-claimed, but rarely-achieved, goal of the scientific method: to make claims that are reproducible under similar circumstances by someone other than the claimant, to be reproducible

A bibliographic metadata infrastructure for the twenty-first century

The current library bibliographic infrastructure was constructed in the early days of computers – before the Web, XML, and a variety of other technological advances that now offer new opportunities. General requirements of a modern metadata infrastructure for libraries are identified, including such qualities as versatility, extensibility, granularity, and openness. A new kind of metadata infrastructure is then proposed that exhibits at least some of those qualities. Some key challenges that must be overcome to implement a change of this magnitude are identified

The Determinants of the Global Digital Divide A Cross-Country Analysis of Computer and Internet Penetration

To identify the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration, we examine a panel of 161 countries over the 1999-2001 period. Our candidate variables include economic variables (income per capita, years of schooling, illiteracy, trade openness), demographic variables (youth and aged dependency ratios, urbanization rate), infrastructure indicators (telephone density, electricity consumption), telecommunications pricing measures, and regulatory quality. With the exception of trade openness and the telecom pricing measures, these variables enter in as statistically significant in most specifications for computer use. A similar pattern holds true for Internet use, except that telephone density and aged dependency matter less. The global digital divide is mainly -– but by no means entirely -– accounted for by income differentials. For computers, telephone density and regulatory quality are of second and third importance, while for the Internet, this ordering is reversed. The region-specific explanations for large disparities in computer and Internet penetration are generally very similar. Our results suggest that public investment in human capital, telecommunications infrastructure, and the regulatory infrastructure can mitigate the gap in PC and Internet use.Computers, Internet, Digital Divide, Infrastructure, Pricing, Regulation

Cross-Country Income Differences and Technology Diffusion in a Competitive World

This paper develops a new open-economy endogenous growth model where technology diffusion allows for a stable and non-degenerate world income distribution. In accordance with the empirical literature, I find that country characteristics such as the social infrastructure, the degree of openness, the investment rate, population growth, the level of human capital, or growth policies such as subsidies to innovation investments explain a country’s position in the eventual world income distribution. Club convergence in growth rates can be traced back to a country’s openness and to a minimum required level of human capital.Capital Accumulation, Technology Diffusion, Neoclassical GrowthModel

Cross-Country Income Differences and Technology Diffusion in a Competitive World

This paper develops a new open-economy endogenous growth model where technology diffusion allows for a stable and non-degenerate world income distribution. In accordance with the empirical literature, I find that country characteristics such as the social infrastructure, the degree of openness, the investment rate, population growth, the level of human capital, or growth policies such as subsidies to innovation investments explain a country’s position in the eventual world income distribution. Club convergence in growth rates can be traced back to a country’s openness and to a minimum required level of human capital.capital accumulation, technology diffusion, neoclassical growth model

The Determinants of the Global Digital Divide: A Cross-Country Analysis of Computer and Internet Penetration

To identify the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration, we examine a panel of 161 countries over the 1999-2001 period. Our candidate variables include economic variables (income per capita, years of schooling, illiteracy, trade openness), demographic variables (youth and aged dependency ratios, urbanization rate), infrastructure indicators (telephone density, electricity consumption), telecommunications pricing measures, and regulatory quality. With the exception of trade openness and the telecom pricing measures, these variables enter in as statistically significant in most specifications for computer use. A similar pattern holds true for Internet use, except that telephone density and aged dependency matter less. The global digital divide is mainly but by no means entirely accounted for by income differentials. For computers, telephone density and regulatory quality are of second and third importance, while for the Internet, this ordering is reversed. The region-specific explanations for large disparities in computer and Internet penetration are generally very similar. Our results suggest that public investment in human capital, telecommunications infrastructure, and the regulatory infrastructure can mitigate the gap in PC and Internet use.

A Fresh Scrutiny on Openness and Per Capita Income Spillovers in Chinese Cities: A Spatial Econometric Perspective

This paper investigates openness and per capita income spillovers over 367 Chinese cities in the year 2004. Per capita income is modelled as dependent on investment, physical and social infrastructure, human capital, governmental policies and openness to the world. Our empirical analysis improves substantially the previous research in several respects: Firstly, by extending the data set to prefecture-level, it tackles the aggregation bias. Secondly, the introduction of recently developed explanatory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and spatial regression techniques allows to address misspecification issues due to spatial dependence. Thirdly, the endogeneity problem in the regression is taken into consideration through the use of generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator. Our major findings are in Chinese cities, physical and social infrastructure development, human capital and investment could be recognised as major driving sources of per capita income (i), whereas, the government expenditure ratio exerts a negative impact on per capita GDP level (ii). Our empirical findings also yield evidence on the existence of FDI and foreign trade spillovers in China (iii). These findings are robust to a number of alternative spatial weighting matrix specifications.

Impact of trade openness, remittances, capital inflows & financial development on income in Vanuatu

In this study, using bounds approach and annual data for the period 1981-2008, the short and long-run effects of remittances and trade openness on income in Vanuatu are estimated. The results show trade openness and remittances having positive and significant effects, with no significant effects from financial development (FIN), foreign direct investment (FDI), and official development aid (ODA). FDI and ODA in this sense behave somewhat differently than remittances. Therefore a greater liberalization of goods and services market in general and short-term temporary movements of people in particular to boost remittances inflows and improving the overall institutional infrastructure is put forward as priority policy measures.Remittances; trade; economic growth; FDI; financial sector development; ODA; bounds test; Vanuatu

Digital Divide: An Econometric Study of the Determinants in Information-poor Countries

There can not be two opinions on the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for economic development. However, real disparities exist in access to and use of ICT across countries. The digital divide is a complicated matter of varying levels of access, basic usage, and applications of ICT among countries and peoples. Using the Gompertz Technology Diffusion model, this paper attempts to measure the contribution of factors such as affordability, knowledge, infrastructure, human capital, trade openness, and economic and social environment in the technology diffusion process, specially in the case of information-poor countries.Digital Divide, Information and Communication Technologies, ICT, Gompertz Model, ICT Diffusion, Economic Development, ICT Infrastructure

Globalization, financial allocation efficiency and regional economic dynamics: asymmetric panel evidence from Africa

This paper examines how regionalization in the face of globalization has affected financial development in the context of banking system efficiency in Africa. Results which are robust to financial system efficiency and growth-led-finance nexus reveal that in the post-regionalization era: (1) UEMOA and CEMAC regional banks’ ability to finance credit by deposits has reduced; (2) financial institutions of COMESA have improved their capacity to fund openness related activities/projects with deposits; (3) increase in welfare has positively affected the intermediary role of banks; (4) globalization tends to be more detrimental to financial systems of ‘economic and monetary’ regions than to those of purely economic regions. As a policy implication, national and regional authorities should gain knowledge of the fact that with openness, the role of domestic and regional banks seems to lessen in the funding of openness related activities and projects. Much needs to be done on the improvement of infrastructure that curtails information asymmetry in the banking industry.Globalization; Financial Development; Regional Integration; Panel; Africa