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www.oecd.org/sti/information-economy

The Working Party on the Information Economy focuses on digital content, ICT diffusion to business, ICT-enabled offshoring, and ICT skills and employment. Work is underway on ICTs and the environment and ICTs and the economic recovery. The Working Party has also prepared a recommendation on public sector information.

This work contributes to development and understanding of policies to meet the opportunities and challenges of ICTs and the Internet economy, and to ensuring that benefits are widely shared. Results appear in the OECD Internet Economy Outlook, in OECD Digital Economy Papers, and on the OECD website.

What's new

E-Books: Developments and Policy Considerations
31 October 2012
Books have undergone a massive transformation from a physical object to something entirely different: the electronic book, or “e-book”.  This report provides background on e-book markets and examines various policy issues related to e-books, such as differing tax rates in countries between physical books and e-books, consumer lock-in to specific platforms, limitations on how users can read and share their purchased content, laws prohibiting discounting of e-books, and a lack of transparency about how personal data on reading habits is being used.

OECD Technology Foresight Forum 2012
Paris, 22 October 2012
This year's forum will focus on the potential of big data analytics as a new source of growth, which could help generate significant economic and social benefits.

OECD Internet Economy Outlook 2012
4 October 2012
Supported by time series data, this publication begins with an overview of trends and highlights how the Internet sector has proven to be resilient during the recent economic crisis. It then examines the various drivers and impacts of Internet use and deployment, as well as emerging technologies, e-health, digital content, security and privacy, and reflects on a methodology for measuring the Internet economy.

Anticipating the Special Needs of the 21st Century Silver Economy: From Smart Technologies to Services
Tokyo, 12-14 September 2012
This invitation-only workshop will be hosted by Waseda University in Tokyo, with the support of the Japanese government (MIC and METI). It aims to analyze how OECD countries are fostering innovation of services for the elderly in sectors such as health and wellness, education, leisure, and urban development.

Final ICTNET Conference on the Economic Impact of ICT: Policy Drivers and Economic Evidence
25-26 June 2012
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.

ICT Skills and Employment: New Competences and Jobs for a Greener and Smarter Economy
4 May 2012
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.

Measuring the 'Broadband Bonus' in 30 OECD Countries
23 April 2012
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.

Measuring the Impact of Innovations in Public IT Infrastructure on the Standard of Living in OECD Economies
19 April 2012
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. 

Information and Communication Technologies and Productivity Growth: A Survey of the Literature
16 April 2012
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. 

More competition is key to cutting excessive international mobile roaming charges, says OECD
21 February 2012
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.

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Measuring the information economy