This is a short article on the University of Manchester website to support a new paper by myself and Shamel Azmeh on latecomer economies and national digital policy.
New research from The University of Manchester explores the strategies used by latecomer economies to play catch-up to the digital world.
With the emergence of the Internet, digital companies and capabilities have been primarily concentrated in advanced economies. As digital technologies, data and AI are becoming used across all areas of the economy, these limitations are becoming important barriers to economic development. This has left emerging and developing economies, such as those of Asia and Latin America, at a disadvantage when it comes to entering the digital race.
So how do they close this gap?
According to Drs Christopher Foster and Shamel Azmeh, from the University, there are two paths being taken. The first is open and global trade, and the second is pursuing interventionist policies on a national scale. In their recent paper, “Latecomer economies and national digital policy: an industrial policy perspective”, published in the Journal of Development Studies, they investigated these competing approaches as they are applied in emerging nations.
Full article available from UoM website