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Digital Dividends
Report

Digital Dividends

World Development Report 2016

World Bank Group
World Bank, 2016
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Overview

Recommendation

The digital age has transformed the world and changed the daily lives of individuals around the globe. But while 5.2 billion people today have mobile phones, 4 billion still have no Internet access. This enlightening report from the World Bank Group provides a comprehensive overview of what governments need to do in providing certain “analog complements” that would enhance existing technology, so that everyone on the planet can reap the benefits of Internet connectivity. The study offers many real-world examples and uses startling statistics to tell a compelling story, which getAbstract recommends to policy makers, investors and business executives.

Summary

A Connected World

In 2016, out of a world population of about 7.4 billion people, 4 billion have no Internet access. Some 3.2 billion have hard-wired Internet connections, but only 1 billion enjoy affordable high-speed access. Meanwhile, 5.2 billion individuals use mobile phones, including about 70% of households on the bottom economic rung; in many places, cellphones are more available than such basics as clean water.

Connectivity provides people with enhanced information, convenience and choice. The Internet Age has created a bounty of economic, individual and social promise. The term “digital dividends” refers to the wider economic gains that digital technologies make possible, such as “faster growth, more jobs and better services.”

Digital Dividend: Faster Growth

The Internet stimulates a country’s development and growth by encouraging “inclusion, efficiency and innovation.” For example, digital payments and identification systems enable entrepreneurial men and women everywhere to participate in labor markets through online work. Text and video technologies allow disabled individuals – who number about one billion worldwide...

About the Author

The World Bank provides financial and technical assistance to developing countries.

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