Publication: Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries
Date
2003-03
ISSN
Published
2003-03
Author(s)
Wallsten, Scott
Abstract
Policymakers are simultaneously
concerned about the consequences of a worsening
"digital divide" between rich and poor countries
and hopeful that information and computing technologies
could increase economic growth in developing countries. But
very little research has explored the reasons for the
digital divide beyond noting that it is strongly correlated
with standard development indicators, and no empirical
research has explored the role of regulation. The author
uses data from a unique new survey of telecommunications
regulators and other sources to measure the effects of
regulation in Internet development. He finds regulation
strongly correlated with lower Internet penetration and
higher Internet access charges. More specifically,
controlling for factors such as income, development of the
telecommunications infrastructure, ubiquity of personal
computers, and time trends, countries that require formal
regulatory approval for Internet service providers (ISPs) to
begin operations have fewer Internet users and Internet
hosts than countries that do not require such approval.
Moreover, countries that regulate ISP final-user prices have
higher Internet access prices than countries that do not
have such regulations. These results suggest that developing
countries' own regulatory policies can have large
impacts on the digital divide.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Wallsten, Scott. 2003. Regulation and Internet Use in Developing Countries. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2979. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19042 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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