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The Long Shadow of the Lockdown: How the Pandemic Altered the Way Americans Spend Time Online

Off the Charts

In the face of pandemic-induced lockdowns, the internet kept Americans connected. We scoured the news for vital information, shifted to virtual work where possible, and shopped and socialized online. As the lockdowns lifted and the United States began navigating its way out of the pandemic, we examine how Americans spent their time online, and discuss implications for those on both sides of the digital divide. We find that work and productivity-related consumption increased significantly, and maintained a dominant position throughout the pandemic cycle, suggesting that a shift to work-related digital platforms is more than a passing trend. Attention to news and public services was far bouncier, fluctuating in response to policy changes and rollouts of key information. While social media usage increased slightly, it saw the smallest pandemic bounce, and tapered off in early 2021, dropping closer to pre-pandemic levels.

Calculating the Environmental Impact of Cash

How Green is the Greenback? An Analysis of the Environmental Costs of Cash in the United States

Off the Charts

All methods of storing value have some environmental cost associated with them. We explore the environmental costs of US cash notes, which amount to $0.26 annually per note, based on resources used and CO2 released. We then compare our cash estimate to the environmental costs of crypto assets, using Bitcoin as the basis, and totals $70 annually per coin in terms of CO2 released. However, when considering all the US banknotes in circulation in the aggregate, and all the mined Bitcoin currently available, we find that the overall environmental impact of cash notes ($12.9 billion USD) far exceeds the environmental cost of Bitcoin ($1.3 billion USD).

DE & Healthcare Capacity Scatter 1200px 07.09.21

Unlocking Value through Virtualized Healthcare: Which Countries are Ready?

Off the Charts

The state of digitization of healthcare delivery globally is quite uneven, spotted with patches of excellence and falling well short in others. Digitally administered medicine is yet to reach corners of the world where its need is the greatest. Our study spanning 46 countries, where we overlaid our measures of digitalization and healthcare capacity, reveals sweet spots for virtualized healthcare and how countries lagging in critical healthcare infrastructure can leapfrog by deploying digital mechanisms to provide quality healthcare to their masses.

LBGTQ - Affiliate Candidate Prevalence

Pride and Prejudice

Off the Charts

For Pride Month, Digital Planet investigates the degree to which LGBTQ+ community finds solidarity among STEM fields. Analysis reveals the share of workers who express their identity as or affiliation with the LGBTQ+ community on their resumes is smaller among STEM graduates than college graduates overall. Women in STEM were twice as likely as men to profess an affiliation with the gay community on their resumes. Younger STEM candidates display a higher rate of LGBTQ+ affiliation than their older colleagues but still significantly trailed younger college graduates overall.

Bar Charts_STEM Diversity & Representation, by Metro Area V2

The Shifting Geography of Talent

Off the Charts

Given the pandemic induced changes in the way companies are recruiting talent and organizing around remote and hybrid work and the movement of talent away from the traditional major hubs, how can we seize this moment as an unprecedented opportunity to improve the representation of under-represented talent (e.g. Black, Hispanic, female) in the high skilled workforce sought after by tech and bio-medical companies? How can organizations locate these diverse talent pools in the major metro areas across the United States?

Geography of Work and STEM Diversity - 26.02.21-01

Big Tech’s Opportunity for Inclusive Growth

Off the Charts

Pandemic-induced work-from-home policies—now slated to be in place for most of 2021, if not indefinitely—could serve as a catalyst for the tech industry to narrow its growing regional and demographic disparity; allowing more cities and demographics to contribute to and prosper from the industry’s economic growth potential. We examined this issue using metrics such as digital readiness, cost of living, and diversity of tech talent pools for a group of states and major cities in the US to assess whether pandemic-induced work-from-home policies could offer the industry an inclusive growth path forward.

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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.

Public Services during COVID19

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 Nation

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 19 lockdown

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.

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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 2017 Report

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.

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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.

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