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The primary objective of this paper is to examine the extent to which agglomeration economies contribute to economic productivity. We distinguish three sources of agglomeration economies: (1) at the firm level from improved access to market centers, (2) at the industry level from intra-industry localization economies, and (3) at the regional level from inter-industry urbanization economies. There is considerable variation in the sources and magnitudes of agglomeration economies between industrial sectors-in particular, our results indicate that access to markets through improvements in inter-regional infrastructure is an important determinant of firm level productivity, whereas benefits of locating in dense urban areas do not appear to offset associated costs. D

Rapid growth of internet use in high-income economies has raised the spectre of a “digital divide” that will marginalize developing countries because they can neither afford internet access nor use it effectively when it is available. Using a new cross-country data set, this paper investigates two proximate determinants of the digital divide: internet intensity (internet subscriptions per telephone mainline); and access to telecom services. Surprisingly, no gap in internet intensity was found. When differences in urbanization and competition policy are controlled for, low-income countries have intensities as high as those of industrial countries. While income does not seem to matter in this context, competition policy matters a great deal. Low-income countries with high World Bank ratings for competition policy have significantly higher internet intensities. The paper's finding on internet intensity implies that the digital divide is not really new, but reflects a persistent gap in the availability of mainline telephone services. After identifying mobile telephones as a promising new platform for internet access, the paper uses panel data to study the determinants of mobile telephone diffusion during the past decade. The results show that income explains part of the diffusion lag for the poor countries, but they also highlight the critical role of policy. Developing countries whose policies promote economic growth and private sector competition have experienced much more rapid diffusion of mobile phone service. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that feasible reforms could sharply narrow the digital divide during the next decade for many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This research has been co-funded funded by a French Consultant Trust Fund and the Development Research Group of the World Bank. We thank Laurent Gobillon for helpful comments.

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