The Digital Divide in East Asia

The concept of a ‘digital divide’—inequality in access to modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) between industrialised and developing countries, and between urban and rural populations—has attracted much attention from policymakers, aid organisations, media and the general public. This paper places discussion of the digital divide in a broader economic context, linking it with the theory of economic growth and technological change. The network effects of diffusion of the Internet are related to the possibility of leap‐frogging by latecomers. This is seen as a ‘digital opportunity’ presented to developing countries by the ‘new economy’. This paper discusses the appropriate policy environment for bridging the digital divide, and concludes that the East Asian region has much to gain from the complementarities of its economies, their openness to trade in ICT products, and policy cooperation.

[1]  M. Hobday.  The Electronics Industries of the Asia-Pacific: Exploiting international production networks for economic development , 2001 .

[2]  Richard Harris.  The Internet as a GPT: Factor Market Implications , 1996 .

[3]  R. Phillips.  Digital Technology and Institutional Change from the Gilded Age to Modern Times: The Impact of the Telegraph and the Internet , 2000 .

[4]  A. Krueger.  How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984-1989 , 1991 .

[5]  Peter A. Chow-White,et al.  Digital Divide , 2018, Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets.

[6]  Jerik Hanushek,et al.  Schooling, Labor-force Quality, and the Growth of Nations , 2000 .

[7]  Jock Given,et al.  The digital divide: some explanations , 2000 .

[8]  K. Stiroh,et al.  What Drives Productivity Growth? , 2001 .

[9]  Wilbur John Coleman,et al.  Cross-Country Technology Diffusion: The Case of Computers , 2001 .

[10]  C Laurent,et al.  Falling through the net. , 1989, Nursing times.

[11]  Matti Pohjola,et al.  Information Technology and Economic Growth: A Cross country Analysis , 1992 .

[12]  Leonard M. Dudley.  Communications and economic growth , 1999 .

[13]  S. Klepper,et al.  Time Paths in the Diffusion of Product Innovations , 1982 .

[14]  S. Davies.  The Diffusion of Process Innovations , 1979 .

[15]  Stephen D. Oliner,et al.  The Resurgence of Growth in the Late 1990s: Is Information Technology the Story? , 2000 .

[16]  Carlota Perez,et al.  Microelectronics, long waves and world structural change: New perspectives for developing countries , 1985 .

[17]  N. Economides.  The Economics of Networks , 1995 .

[18]  P. Howitt,et al.  Endogenous Growth Theory , 1999 .

[19]  B. Bosworth,et al.  Economic Growth in East Asia: Accumulation versus Assimilation , 1996 .

[20]  Y. Ben-Porath.  The Production of Human Capital and the Life Cycle of Earnings , 1967, Journal of Political Economy.

[21]  Ernest J. Wilson,et al.  Creating a Development Dynamic: Final Report of the Digital Opportunity Initiative | July, 2001 | PDF (612K) , 2001 .

[22]  Paul Krugman,et al.  The Myth of Asia's Miracle , 1994 .

[23]  Oz Shy,et al.  Technology revolutions in the presence of network externalities , 1996 .

[24]  Stephen E. Margolis,et al.  Network externality : an uncommon tragedy , 1994 .

[25]  Robert Bacinski,et al.  Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) , 2002 .

[26]  Michael T. Kiley,et al.  Computers and Growth with Costs of Adjustment: Will the Future Look Like the Past? , 1999 .

[27]  Boyan Jovanovic,et al.  The Growth and Diffusion of Knowledge , 1989 .

[28]  David Card,et al.  Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States , 1990, Journal of Political Economy.

[29]  G. Grossman,et al.  Innovation and growth in the global economy , 1993 .

[30]  Dale W. Jorgenson,et al.  RAISING THE SPEED LIMIT: US ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE INFORMATION AGE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT WORKING PAPERS NO. 261 , 2000 .

[31]  Mark J. Safferstone.  Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy , 1999 .

[32]  P. Romer.  Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[33]  M. Baily,et al.  Do We Have a New E-Conomy? , 2001 .

[34]  Nicholas Economides,et al.  Critical Mass and Network Evolution in Telecommuni-cations , 2013 .

[35]  Robert E. Litan.  The Internet Economy , 2001 .

[36]  Alwyn Young,et al.  The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience , 1994 .