OECD ICT News

Greater use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can help Spain unlock governmental efficiencies and help prepare the country for future economic growth, according to a new study from the OECD.

This report analyses initiatives in a number of countries through which end-users are notified by Internet service providers when their computer is identified as being compromised by malicious software and encouraged to take action to mitigate the problem. It reviews the core dimensions of these initiatives and provides high-level guidance for future policy development.

The emerging "green" economy is a "smarter" economy that has increased demand for ICT-skilled jobs not only in the ICT sector, but more rapidly across the wider non-ICT economy. The further creation of new jobs can only occur, however, if the right mix of skills and competences are available in the labour market. Shortages of required ICT-related skills have been observed in some OECD countries, and this is particularly true for skills related to green ICTs.

This paper provides estimates of the economic value created by broadband Internet using measures of new gross domestic product and consumer surplus. It finds that the economic value created in 30 OECD countries correlates roughly with the overall size of their broadband economies. In addition, price and quality data from the United States suggest that widespread adoption of broadband Internet has occurred without a dramatic decline in prices, which reflects an unobserved increase in broadband quality that conventional government statistics do not capture.

This conference, to be held at the OECD in Paris, aims to provide policy makers with evidence and tools to measure the economic impact of ICTs, assess the effectiveness of their current policies, and feed into the ICT policy agenda for the years to come.

This paper utilises an economic model that looks at the end result – observations on changes in the pattern of consumer spending behaviour – and econometrically estimates the extent of the link between these behavioural changes and their drivers: traditional economic stimuli as well as changes in the economic environment due to advances in technology and improved provision of public sector IT infrastructure.

The wealth of nations and their economic fortunes are ultimately driven by productivity. More productive workers earn higher wages and experience higher living standards than past generations. Hence, studying the driving forces behind productivity growth is an important question for researchers and policymakers alike. This paper presents a review of existing studies on dynamic, macroeconomic effects of ICT on productivity and growth.

Measuring the economic and social impacts of the Internet presents several challenges. This working paper reviews the rapidly changing nature of the Internet, the need for more granular data in order to understand its complexity, and the phenomenon of big data, which makes it possible to measure almost anything.

Mobile termination rates decreased across the OECD by 53% between 2006 and 2011. Cutting rates to zero would strengthen competition in voice and other services, according to this report. It could also speed up the introduction of innovative new VoIP services and encourage providers to offer a range of tariff models to meet the needs of their users, free from prices reflecting monopoly power on the networks of others.

As the Internet permeates every aspect of our economy and society, it is also a daily reality in our children’s lives. While it brings considerable benefits to their education and development, it also exposes them to online risks such as access to inappropriate content, abusive interaction with others, exposure to aggressive marketing practices and privacy risks. The OECD has just released recommendations aiming to protect minors online.

To help governments boost competition and drive down excessive prices in international mobile roaming markets, the OECD has released a series of recommendations to protect consumers.

A new report entitled "Machine-to-Machine Communication: Connecting Billions of Devices" looks at examples of some of the uses of machine-to-machine communication today and its potential to enhance economic and social development. It concludes that to achieve such benefits, changes to telecommunication policy and regulatory frameworks are likely to be needed.

Mexico should quickly reform the laws and regulations governing its telecommunications sector to boost competition and investment and drive growth across the economy, according to a new OECD report.

This event will bring together participants from 20 countries, the European Commission, the World Health Organisation and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD to discuss the use of health-related ICTs to improve access to health services, quality of care, and health system productivity. The longer-term intent of the initiative is to establish a robust framework to benchmark progress on e-health internationally.

The smart grid is revolutionizing electricity production and consumption. However, strategic use of ICTs and the Internet in energy innovation requires clarifying the roles of partners coming from distinct industries. And it begs for greater coordination of government departments and stakeholder communities that so far had unrelated competencies. This report outlines opportunities, challenges and public policy implications from shifts to ICT-enabled, "smart" electricity grids.

The openness of the Internet has been key in stimulating innovation and economic growth and stems from its multi-stakeholder model of development and management. Amid growing concern that this openness is eroding, the OECD has adopted a set of shared principles to preserve the fundamentally open and dynamic nature of the Internet.

This working paper looks at the ways to quantify the local content that can be delivered through the Internet. Several indicators are proposed; for each one, the paper discusses available data, presents strengths of a given measure and outlines its potential drawbacks.

Despite fundamental changes in the data processing landscape, and the growth in the regulation of transborder data flows in numerous countries, there has been little attempt so far to conduct a systematic inventory of such regulation at a global level, to examine the policies underlying it, and to consider whether those policies need to be re-evaluated. This study is designed to describe the present status of transborder data flow regulation, and to provoke reflection about its aims, operation, and effectiveness, now and in the future.

Demand from new wireless subscribers is driving growth in high-speed Internet in OECD countries but the latest data show a slowdown in fixed broadband subscriptions in the first half of 2011.

The focus of this event held in Washington, DC, was discussion of a new approach to harmonizing broadband and Internet economy metrics.