From POTS to E-commerce: What Have the Developing Countries Learnt About Property Rights Over the Last 50 Years?

The challenge of electronic commerce is new to the developing world. Will this technology-driven initiative allow developing countries in Asia to leapfrog? Electronic commerce will trot or walk depending upon the property rights shaping its behaviour. The history of information infrastructural provision teaches us that efficient property rights can only be expected in rare circumstances, when the polity has a highly developed civil society and existing institutions produce restraint. Sequencing and the fit between domestic institutions and the types of property rights are important. Well-organized large user groups are clear winners from reforms, but universal service in countries like South Korea and Singapore resulted from state prerogatives. Three layers of an electronic commerce network along with five conditions of property rights efficiency are identified.