Dispatches from the Digital Planet: April 2021
Check out the latest from the Digital Planet, including highlights from the most recent IDEA 2030 webinar and new research insights.
You Say ‘Coup,’ I Say ‘Koo’
Bhaskar Chakravorti claims that India is a warning about unintended consequences for those looking to regulate Big Tech in the United States, via his op-ed in Foreign Policy.
Webinar Recording: Turning America's Digital Divide into Digital Dividends
Did you miss the IDEA2030 webinar on March 31st? Watch the full webinar here!
How Digital Trust Varies Across the World
In their latest article in Harvard Business Review, Bhaskar Chakravorti, Ravi Chaturvedi, and Ajay Bhalla uncover interesting trends about how different economies develop and establish digital trust.
Big Tech’s Opportunity for Inclusive Growth
The work from home experiences from the pandemic could serve as a catalyst for the tech industry to narrow its large disparities in geographic and demographic diversity, if it chooses to take those lessons to heart.
Did Big Tech Save the World From an Even Bigger Economic Meltdown?
The positive associations between advanced digital evolution and economic stability are notable but not universal.
A Tale of Two Digital Economies: Gig Workers and Remote Workers
These past months have shown the gig economy’s increasing importance in providing essential services to communities, while highlighting the inherent disparities and vulnerabilities experienced by its workers.
Digital Intelligence Index
An interactive research report that indexes trust in the digital economy and its evolution across 90 economies during the COVID-19 pandemic. This report features a collaborative research platform that provides data and evidence-driven actionable insights to leaders in government, business and technology.
Urban-Rural Divides: The Uneven Experience of COVID-19 Across the States
Which states across the rural-urban continuum were able to digitally work from home, while containing the spread of the pandemic? Digital Planet scored and arrayed all 50 states and the District of Columbia on their digital readiness and average change in effective reproduction rate of the virus (Rt) from March 16 to May 13, 2020.
Which governments are best equipped to deliver public services online during a lockdown?
The delivery of public services online requires two necessary conditions: the infrastructure — hardware and software — for governments to deliver public services digitally, and the availability of affordable internet access. We scored and arrayed 42 countries on these two aspects: (1) digital public services and (2) inclusive and affordable internet. Additionally, we wove in a snapshot of government lockdown and social distancing mandates into this analysis.
Uneven State of the Union: How US States Differ in Slowing COVID-19
Even as COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the United States, reaching over 1.67 million cases and nearly 100,000 deaths as of May 26, 2020, many states are now beginning to ease social distancing and stay-at-home mandates. Each state is taking its own unique approach to lifting stay at home orders, allowing businesses to open, and loosening social distancing regulations, due in no small part to a lack of direction from the federal government.
COVID Lockdown: How prepared are countries around the world to enter and exit Lockdowns
How prepared are countries to work in socially distant modes and lift lockdown orders during the COVID-19 pandemic? We examined this question by evaluating 42 countries that are significant in the global economy and have enacted social distancing measures. Some countries that were missing key data were not included. We scored the “social distance readiness” of their economies using three indices developed with our team
African Leapfrog Index: Getting Lions to Leapfrog
The African Leapfrog Index (ALI) is a novel framework that draws upon the primary levers that facilitate the translation of digital technologies into development and inclusive growth. The framework evaluates six African countries against a continent-wide “best-performance” benchmark to identify strengths to build upon and the opportunities to close gaps.
The Ease of Doing Digital Business
How easy is it for the most significant digital platforms to enter, operate, thrive or exit in markets around the world, and what are the primary facilitators and barriers? In our quest for answers, we drew upon 236 variables across 42 countries from over 60 data sources. We considered four types of digital platforms representing distinct value propositions and the primary business models—e-commerce platforms, digital media, sharing economy platforms, and online freelance—as the leading indicators of digital business opportunities in a country.
Building “Smart Societies”: A Blueprint for Action
In this report, we offer a comprehensive framework that covers the essential societal outcomes and a set of benchmarks to measure the progress of any country on the journey towards a “smart society.” For countries aspiring to accelerate that journey, this report offers a dashboard that helps a country’s policymakers locate where the country currently is relative to the benchmarks and what its areas of strength and advantage are.
Digital Planet Report: 2017
The DEI 2017 is a data-driven holistic evaluation of the progress of the digital economy across 60 countries, combining more than 100 different indicators across four key drivers: Supply Conditions, Demand Conditions, Institutional Environment, and Innovation and Change. The resulting framework captures both the state and rate of digital evolution and identifies implications for investment, innovation, and policy priorities.
Digital Evolution Index: Latin America & Caribbean
The Digital Evolution Index: Latin America and Caribbean Edition (DEI LAC) is a data-driven study of the pace of digital growth in 24 LAC countries across four key drivers of supply, demand, institutional environment, and innovation. It utilizes 99 unique indicators measured over a ten-year period (2008 – 2017) to create an overall digital evolution score and digital momentum score.