Regulating the Digital Economy: Are we Moving Towards a 'win‐ win' or a 'lose‐lose' ?
Published By: Maastricht Economic and social Research Institute | Published Date: 2018The digital economy has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years, mostly as a result of new
digital technologies that are promoting a global transformation to industry 4.0. The resulting expansion of
digital trade has sparked off a political and policy controversy on digital economy and e-commerce,
where its boundaries stand and how best to regulate it. Policy discussions on the topic however do not
take into account the true expanse of digital trade, which encompasses hardware, software, networks,
platforms, applications and data as its core elements, and stretches the boundaries of e-commerce policy
to trade in goods, services and intellectual property protection. This article focuses on the challenges in
regulating the digital economy, with a particular focus on development, and offers a discussion of the
interdependency between the economic, social, personal and developmental aspects of digital trade for
developing countries. Section II opens with a detailed discussion on key digital technologies and their
plausible impacts on employment globally and industrial catch-up of particular importance to developing
countries, to highlight the divisive nature of digital technologies. Section III then analyses the unfulfilled
promise of a pro-development perspective at the WTO looking at how multilateralism has currently failed
e-commerce.
Author(s): Padmashree Gehl Sampath | Posted on: Jan 23, 2018 | Views() | Download (127)