While several determinants of ICT usage has been investigated in the literature, the impact of access to electricity has been so far overlooked. In this paper, we rely on countrylevel data on the penetration rates of mobile telephony, Internet and smartphones, as well as average revenue per user...

The impact of broadband Internet on employment is ambiguous, but empirical evidence is still limited. In this paper, we exploit data on a massive adoption of broadband Internet in France to investigate the impact of broadband Internet on employment. Using a fuzzy difference-in-difference...

A substantial number of individuals remains unconnected to the Internet despite an increasing emphasis on infrastructure-based competition. This paper investigates the impact of shared telecom infrastructure on digital connectivity and inclusion using a new dataset on mobile tower sharing...

Abstract Digital technologies like the Internet can affect income inequality through increased demand for employment in manual and abstract jobs and reduced demand for employment in routine jobs. In this paper, we combine city-level income distribution and jobs data with broadband data from...

The impact of broadband Internet on employment is ambiguous, but empirical evidence is still limited. In this paper, we exploit data on a massive adoption of broadband Internet in France to investigate the impact of broadband Internet on employment. Using a fuzzy difference-in-difference...

The COVID-19 pandemic shows that digital connectivity is critical to societal resilience and business continuity in times of crisis. For digital infrastructure providers in emerging markets, higher demand for connectivity may be counterbalanced by a series of negative shocks. These could affect...

Digital connectivity has enormous potential to support development. Yet today some four billion people in emerging economies remain offline, partly due to a lack of affordable Internet access. Sharing infrastructure among operators and across sectors is a potential solution. It can accelerate...

The accelerated use of digital services during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of high-speed Internet access. Yet a large share of adults in emerging markets still live in cities where the availability of high-speed Internet is limited. There is a strong case to be made for...