Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries

Wallsten, Scott

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES;    CIVIC ENGAGEMENT;    COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES;    COMPETITION POLICY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2979
RP-ID  :  WPS2979

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Policymakers are simultaneouslyconcerned about the consequences of a worsening"digital divide" between rich and poor countriesand hopeful that information and computing technologiescould increase economic growth in developing countries. Butvery little research has explored the reasons for thedigital divide beyond noting that it is strongly correlatedwith standard development indicators, and no empiricalresearch has explored the role of regulation. The authoruses data from a unique new survey of telecommunicationsregulators and other sources to measure the effects ofregulation in Internet development. He finds regulationstrongly correlated with lower Internet penetration andhigher Internet access charges. More specifically,controlling for factors such as income, development of thetelecommunications infrastructure, ubiquity of personalcomputers, and time trends, countries that require formalregulatory approval for Internet service providers (ISPs) tobegin operations have fewer Internet users and Internethosts than countries that do not require such approval.Moreover, countries that regulate ISP final-user prices havehigher Internet access prices than countries that do nothave such regulations. These results suggest that developingcountries' own regulatory policies can have largeimpacts on the digital divide.