DIGITAL TRADE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Keywords:
social distancing, digital trade, digital technologies, developing countriesAbstract
The measures of lockdown and social distancing that governments around the world have adopted to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased online shopping and teleworking. The digital trade and information technologies that characterize today’s society provide countries around the globe with access to markets that were previously considered unreachable. The world economy has changed significantly since the World Trade Organization (WTO) was founded, amongst other due to digitalization. Digital innovations are transforming the global economy. The decline in search and information costs, rapid growth of new products and markets, and emergence of new players ushered in by digital technologies have the promise of boosting global trade flows, including exports from developing countries. At the same time, digital technologies are also threatening privacy and security worldwide, while developing countries that lack the tools to compete in the new digital environment are in danger of being left even further behind.
References
Acemoglu, D., & Restrepo, P. (2018). “The race between man and machine: Implications of technology for growth, factor shares, and employment”, American Economic Review 108(6): 1488-1515.
Aghion, P., Jones, B. F., & Jones, C. I. (2019). “Artificial intelligence and economic growth”, in Agrawal, A., Gans, J. and Goldfarb, A. (eds.), The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 237-282.
Aguiar, A., Bekkers, E., Corong, E., Koopman, R., Teh, R., & van der Mensbrugghe, D. (2019). “The WTO Global Trade Model: Technical Documentation”, WTO Staff Working Paper ERSD-2019-10.
Ahn, J., Khandelwal, A. K., & Wei, S.-J. (2011). “The role of intermediaries in facilitating trade”, Journal of International Economics 84(1): 73-85.
Bekkers, E., Koopman, R., Sabbadini, G., & Teh, R. (2018). “Long Run Trends in International Trade: The Impact of New Technologies”, Mimeo.
Bitkom and Fraunhofer (2014). Industrie 4.0 – Volkswirtschaftliches Potenzial fur Deutschland. https://www.bitkom.org/sites/ default/files/file/import/Studie-Industrie-40. pdf Borenstein, S. and Saloner, G. (2001), “Economics and electronic commerce”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives 15(1): 3-12.
Boston Consulting Group (2015). The Robotics Revolution: The Next Great Leap in Manufacturing, 23 September 2015.
Cairncross, F. (2001). The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Is Changing Our Lives, Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School.
Clarke, G. R. G. (2008). “Has the internet increased exports for firms from low and middle-income countries?”, Information Economics and Policy 20(1): 16-37
Lendle, A., Olarreaga, M., Schropp, S., & Vézina, P.-L. (2016). “There goes gravity: eBay and the death of distance”, The Economic Journal 126(591): 406-441.
McDaniel, C., & Norberg, H. C. (2019). “Can blockchain technology facilitate international trade?”, Mercatus Research, Arlington, VA: Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
