I have published a Policy Brief (with Shamel Azmeh) for UNIDO on “Aligning digital and industrial policy to foster future industrialization“. Based on our previous papers, this discusses the importance of digital policy as part of industiral policy. It particularly focusses on emerging policy around data. The policy brief is available here and a shorter summary available on the UNIDO Industrial Analytics Platform
I was recently involved in putting together a special issue of Cambridge Jounal of Regions Economy and Society (CJRES) alongside Huiwen Gong, Robert Hassink, Martin Hess and Harry Garretsen
The SI is titled “Globalization in Reverse: Reconfiguring the Geographies of Value Chains and Production Networks” and looks to examine through its contributions some of the recent deabtes around the reconfigurations of globalization.
This special issue on ‘Globalisation in Reversal? Reconfiguring the Geographies of Value Chains and Production Networks’ aims at showcasing recent work that seeks to contribute to and advance on the debates on economic globalisation and the reconfiguration of global value chains and production networks. Standing at a crossroad, where ongoing slowbalisation coincides with new forces such as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, heightened geopolitical tensions, the emergence of several revolutionary technologies, and the increasing urgency of addressing environmental challenges, many important questions still remain unsolved regarding the nature and impact of these changes.
The special issue also includes an extended editorial from the editors that discusses some of the shifts occurring, based on the papers in the issue
Recently Shamel Azmeh, Ahmad Abd Rabuh and myself published a paper “The rise of the data economy and policy strategies for digital development” as part of Digital Pathways at Oxford Paper Series. It examines the notion of “data value chains” and how we might use them to understand global regulation and policy making around data
This paper uses the concept of data value chain to analyse the data economy and to examine the different policies states are following in different stages of the data value chain. We examine how these policies could translate into different pathways to achieve digital development by focusing on different stages within the data value chain.
We identify four pathways to digital development: a) active data localisation, b) strategic data sharing, c) opportunities in low income data processes, and d) building sectoral specific application linked to data, and illustrate how different countries and economies could follow different policy pathways.
A new paper has been published that I was a co-author on. “Datafication, value and power in developing countries: Big data in two Indian public service organizations” extends our previous sectoral analysis of big data to explore the implications more broadly.
Datafication—the growing presence, use and impact of data in social processes—is spreading to all sectors in developing countries. But, to date, there are few analyses of real‐world experiences of datafication in developing country organizations
….Big data systems are facilitating a shift in power from the public sector to the private sector, and from labour and middle management to panopticon‐type control by central managers. Big data intersects with politics especially around the imaginaries of wider stakeholders, changing their view of the financial and political issues that technology can address.
You can find more details and a blog post on the publications page
On the Global Development Institute blog, I outline some research done exploring digitalisation of the tea sector in East Africa. The findings were recently published in a book chapter inthe MIT Press book “Digital Economies at Global Margins”
How do new digital technologies enable firms to develop? One process often highlighted is disintermediation, where digital technologies allow firms to “cut out the middleman”. Exploring the Kenyan tea auction we suggest that these ideas need to be rethought. Digital technologies bring change, but may lead to more challenging conditions for smaller firms.
For more details, see the GDI blog
This new post of the DIODE network blog outline some recent working papers by Shamel Azmeh and myself exploring digital trade cases in more detail
The global economy is experiencing important technological shifts with the rise of digital technology a key driver. These changes are likely to intensify in the coming years with new technologies that are emerging such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and autonomous vehicles.
For developing and emerging economies, the digital economy provides an opportunity to achieve economic and technological catching-up through using digital technologies and building capacities. But, technological shifts may also widen the technological divide with advanced economies weakening the position of developing economies in global value chains and making ongoing catching-up efforts ineffective.
To explore these issues further, we have recently be undertaking research which aims to offer direction in terms of constructing overall policy strategy in developing and emerging economies, in partnership with the Global Economic Governance Africa project, focussing on South Africa.
For more details see the DIODE network blog
The new edition of Bridges Africa, which is a well-regarded online publication focussing on international trade and Africa, is on e-commerce and digital trade.
Shamel Azmeh and I wrote an article for thise special issue entitled ‘The Digital Trade Agenda and Africa’
Digital technologies and data flows are increasingly the subject of provisions in trade negotiations. How do African states position themselves in these discussions in order to expand their digital economies and support digital industrialisation?
In this article, we discuss recent trends towards regulating broader aspects of digital technologies and data flows through international trade rules. Given the growing importance of digital technologies and data, these changes are likely to shape the future directions of digital economies, industrialisation and structural change in Africa. Yet, at present there has been little consideration of the specific challenges that African countries face.
Read the full article is available on the Bridges Africa site. The article has also been translated into French
This week UNCTAD released their flagship Information Economy Report 2017. With growing global digital connectivity and technologically-driven global markets, it is appropriate that it focuses on ‘Digitalization, Trade and Development’.
The report provides extensive outline of the latest thinking on issues including future automation technologies, online work and a consideration of what jobs and skills are important in this changing economy. See full report here
Information economy report 2017
I was involved in contributing a background paper for this report on the digitalisation of small enterprises in developing countries and the impacts on trade which supports Chapter 3. I think it is one of the first analysis that attempts to provide a sectoral perspective on this topic, linking between digitalisation and small firms through analysis of ‘value chains’ in each sector. Continue reading
I recently wrote a short article on the blog of the Sheffield Institute of International Development (SIID). It outline some of the pilot work I’m currently involved with on Big Data and Development
…We’re seeing a growth of interest in using more data in development, and notably large and complex “big data” to help solve development problems. Indeed, we can say that the infrastructures now being built to support big data are likely to become central to how we make development decisions in the future.
How will such data infrastructures shape our thinking about development over the next decade? What types of limitations and biases might they embed? How should they best be designed and implemented? It is these questions that we looked to explore in a recent project exploring big data use in India.
See the full article of the SIID blog
I’m happy to share new working paper titled ‘The TPP and the digital trade agenda: Digital industrial policy and Silicon Valley’s influence on new trade agreements‘, written by Shamel Azmeh and myself.
In the paper we explore the growing focus on data and digital information flows in new trade deals such as the TPP, and explore some of the motivations behind this trend.
For a more accessible outline, see the medium article we wrote
One of the most commented upon elements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the inclusion of new rules around digital information flows and digital data. In particular, we have seen civil society and technology commentators criticising some of the rules within the agreement — on source code, data localisation and intermediaries — that they suggest will be detrimental to a secure, open and competitive digital sector.
What has been less discussed is the reason why these rules are part of such an agreement. We suggest that many of the problems identified so far are purely collateral damage emerging from the main goal of digital clauses of the TPP — an aim by Silicon Valley to nip in the bud the expansion of ‘digital protectionism’ (or what we prefer to call ‘digital industrial policy’!).