Assessing the African mobile telephony boom : the impact of the mobile phone and its relationship to the digital divide

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).This dissertation provides an overview of the boom in mobile telephony in Africa, experienced in terms of exceptional and increasing subscriber growth. It provides a description of the mobile telephony boom, as well as its social political and economic impacts. It investigates what effect mobile telephony has had on the bridging of a broader digital divide, conceived of in terms of inequalities in access to information and communication technologies between Africa and the rest of the world, as well within Africa itself. It concludes that the boom in mobile telephony has had far-reaching impacts on the continent at all levels of African society. In particular, mobile phones have had a significant economic impact on the continent, which the author argues has been from the bottom up -affecting greatly the base of the economic pyramid and the informal sector. Mobile telephony has however not made a significant impact in the bridging of the digital divide conceived of in terms of access to the internet. A broader digital divide still exists which mobile telephony may not provide the tools to bridge

Who leaps first: Status quo of the leapfrogging phenomenon

In an economic environment, the leapfrogging phenomenon manifests itself in various facets and makes it possible to skip stages of development or product generations. However, an overview of the actors that are involved, how they are connected, and the effects that leapfrogging can have is missing. This article thus focuses on identifying relevant research contributions and analyzing their content by text mining. The results reveal that various actors engage in leapfrogging and that this phenomenon plays a major role in the development of countries, for instance. Firms and industries also pursue leapfrogging, for example, to take leading positions in the market (business strategies). An area of research that has received little attention thus far addresses the leapfrogging behavior of consumers. Technological leapfrogging also combines numerous elements of this phenomenon. Therefore, this article derives many relevant topics for research and practice to investigate this phenomenon in a more accurate and targeted manner

Mobile banking and financial inclusion : the regulatory lessons

Mobile banking is growing at a remarkable speed around the world. In the process it is creating considerable uncertainty about the appropriate regulatory response to this newly emerging service. This paper sets out a framework for considering the design of regulation of mobile banking. Since it lies at the interface between financial services and telecoms, mobile banking also raises competition policy and interoperability issues that are discussed in the paper. Finally, by unbundling payments services into its component parts, mobile banking provides important lessons for the design of financial regulation more generally in developed as well as developing economies.Banks&Banking Reform,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets,Debt Markets,Technology Industry

Information and communication technology development and anthropogenic global warming: A cross-national panel study of ICT development on carbon dioxide emissions 1990-2009

Policy makers and ecological modernization scholars have begun to focus attention on the application of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to the mitigation of CO2 emissions, the primary cause of anthropogenic global warming. This begs the question. Does ICT development increase or decrease CO2 emissions? Two schools of thought provide competing hypotheses on this question. On one hand, Ecological Modernization Theory and its associated perspectives offer an optimistic appraisal of the impact of ICT development on CO2 emissions. On the other hand, World Systems Theory, Treadmill of Production Theory and Structural Human Ecology Theory offer a pessimistic view of the potential for ICT development to reduce CO2 emissions. This dissertation investigates the impact of ICT development on CO2 emissions and resolves which school of thought is most appropriate. The analyses of six dependent variables (total CO2 emissions, per capita CO2 emissions and CO2 emissions from electricity, buildings, manufacturing, and transportation) are conducted using a multilevel growth model that examines both changes over time (level-1) and differences between countries (level-2). The analyses cover the years 1990-2009 and uses three samples of nations: a global sample of all countries that data are available for (N=1926, n=121), a developed countries sample (N=461, n=26) and a less-developed countries sample (N=1465, n=95). Four key ICT development indicators are included as independent variables: fixed telephones per 100 people, mobile telephones per 100 people, the leapfrogging ratio of mobile telephones to fixed telephones and Internet users per 100 people. Population size, GDP per capita, urbanization, trade, and service economy are included as controls. The results of the analyses support the pessimistic view of ICT development. Fixed telephones per 100 people is the most consistent driver of increased CO2 emissions globally. Mobile telephones do not have a significant impact on CO2 emissions. Globally, the Internet does not have a significant effect on CO2 emissions; however, in developed countries the Internet does increase CO2 emissions

Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-Based Economy - The Next Policy Agenda

[Excerpt] This study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) seeks to analyze the ways in which Asia’s middle- and low-income countries can tap knowledge-based economic development to maintain and strengthen the growth momentum and to move up global value chains. The ADB study uses the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) rubric to benchmark the performance of developing economies in Asia against advanced economies of the world. It is clear that on all the four pillars of the knowledge economy—innovation, education and skills, ICT, and the economic incentive and institutional regime—developing economies in Asia significantly lag behind advanced nations. Policy makers in developing Asia need ensure appropriate investments and conducive policies across all the four pillars. The report traces the journey of the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Finland as KBEs and the lessons developing economies can derive. However, going beyond this, the report also highlights a number of special advantages that Asia can effectively tap that will help them leapfrog to the knowledge frontier. The relative lack of legacy infrastructure in developing economies, particularly in information communication technology, could enable developing economies to leapfrog over certain technology cycles and access the latest technologies, such as moving to cloud computing solutions. Asia needs to effectively combine established wisdom from the experience of developed economies with contemporary knowledge and options that new technologies bring to strengthen KBE processes. An important dimension for developing economies in Asia to consider, given the rising inequality in the region, is making KBE processes inclusive. This report explores a number of opportunities in this direction

The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies

This book synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures as well as lessons from successes and failures in order to better understand the challenges of technology upgrading in emerging economies. The objective is to bring together in one volume diverse evidence regarding three major dimensions of technology upgrading: paths of technology upgrading, structural changes in the nature of technology upgrading, and the issues of technology transfer and technology upgrading. The knowledge of these three dimensions is being synthesized at the firm, sector, and macro levels across different countries and world macro-regions. Compared to the old and new challenges and uncertainties facing emerging economies, our understanding of the technology upgrading is sparse, unsystematic, and scattered. While our understanding of these issues from the 1980s and 1990s is relatively more systematized, the changes that took place during the globalization and proliferation of GVCs, the effects of the post-2008 events, and the effects of the current COVID-19 and geopolitical struggles on technology upgrading have not been explored and compared synthetically. Moreover, the recent growth slowdown in many emerging economies, often known as a middle-income trap, has reinforced the importance of understanding the technology upgrading challenges of catching-up economies. We believe that the time is ripe for “taking stock of the area” in order to systematize and evaluate the existing knowledge on processes of technology upgrading of emerging economies at the firm, sector, and international levels and to make further inroads in research on this issue. This volume aims to significantly contribute towards this end

Mobile banking and financial inclusion: The regulatory lessons

Mobile banking is growing at a remarkable speed around the world. In the process it is creating considerable uncertainty about the appropriate regulatory response to this newly emerging service. This paper sets out a framework for considering the design of regulation of mobile banking. Since it lies at the interface between financial services and telecoms, mobile banking also raises competition policy and interoperability issues that are discussed in the paper. Finally, by unbundling payments services into its component parts, mobile banking provides important lessons for the design of financial regulation more generally in developed as well as developing economies. --Banking,Regulation,Microfinance,Payments System,Mobile Money

The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies

This book synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures as well as lessons from successes and failures in order to better understand the challenges of technology upgrading in emerging economies. The objective is to bring together in one volume diverse evidence regarding three major dimensions of technology upgrading: paths of technology upgrading, structural changes in the nature of technology upgrading, and the issues of technology transfer and technology upgrading. The knowledge of these three dimensions is being synthesized at the firm, sector, and macro levels across different countries and world macro-regions. Compared to the old and new challenges and uncertainties facing emerging economies, our understanding of the technology upgrading is sparse, unsystematic, and scattered. While our understanding of these issues from the 1980s and 1990s is relatively more systematized, the changes that took place during the globalization and proliferation of GVCs, the effects of the post-2008 events, and the effects of the current COVID-19 and geopolitical struggles on technology upgrading have not been explored and compared synthetically. Moreover, the recent growth slowdown in many emerging economies, often known as a middle-income trap, has reinforced the importance of understanding the technology upgrading challenges of catching-up economies. We believe that the time is ripe for “taking stock of the area” in order to systematize and evaluate the existing knowledge on processes of technology upgrading of emerging economies at the firm, sector, and international levels and to make further inroads in research on this issue. This volume aims to significantly contribute towards this end