Who Really Wins from the Digital Economy?

Digitization is rapidly re-assembling the nuts and bolts of the global economy. Its disruptions are profound but uneven. From Cuba to Mozambique, from Argentina to India people, companies and governments have found different strategies to cope with the new digital world and a digital economy. In the latest entry to our Crossroads series Samuel George traces down how. Join him on his journey around the globe!

It Is Top-down and Bottom-Up. But Sometimes Turned Upside-Down.

Cuba is a socialist government-run economy and India is the world’s largest democracy – right? Right! But when it comes to digitization, the strategies in both countries are counterintuitive: While India heavily relies on a top-down approach for spreading digital technology across its vast territory, in Cuba an individual hacker-spirit has been imperative in transforming the economy of the small Caribbean island bottom-up. This is just one of many examples that goes to show that the digital revolution is not only challenging economic activities but also the political systems they are embedded in. The digital transformation is redrawing the lines of society as we go along.

There Are Winners and Losers in a Digital Economy. But Losers Could Become Winners again.

Governments struggle to adapt to this new reality. And so are people. While Ubermight be a chance for unemployed Argentinians to increase their income, it is fierce competition for traditional taxi drivers in Buenos Aires. Whereas the digital transformation has helped millions of Mozambicans to increase their access to basic technology and thus opportunity, the U.S. rust belt has seen thousands of blue collar jobs leaving and hundreds of families deprived of income and social status. Fortunately, there more and better educational programs help people to adapt to these challenges – turning miners into programmers in West Virginia, for instance.

It Is One New Video. But There Is Much More Information on Our Website.

If you want to find out more about how digital technology is transforming the way we work and live together in countries around the world in a digital economy, then check out our video. If you are interested in data behind the pictures, turn to our Globalization Report 2018. It shows how much countries have benefited from globalizations. To find out, whether your country is reaping its full potential in the digital economy, you can access a study on digital trade in services, one of the trade areas with the best growth prospects. You might also enjoy our virtual roundtable on the topic.

Boosting Trade in Services in the Digitalisation Era

GED Virtual Roundtable: Boosting Digital Services Trade – Potentials and Obstacles