Global electronic commerce : a policy primer / Catherine L. Mann, Sue E. Eckert, Sarah Cleeland Knight.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mann, Catherine L.

Contributor:

Eckert, Sue E.

Knight, Sarah Cleeland.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electronic commerce.

Electronic commerce--Government policy.

Electronic commerce--Law and legislation.

Physical Description:

xv, 213 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : Institute for International Economics, 2000.

Summary:

Electronic commerce is changing the way businesses and consumers create, sell, and buy products and the way they communicate and learn. This primer addresses the needs of the policy makers in emerging markets who must formulate and refine policies that affect e-commerce in areas such as telecommunications, finance, taxation, privacy, and international trade and domestic distribution.

Contents:

I Overview and Economics of Electronic Commerce

What Is Electronic Commerce? 9

How Fast Are Growth and Diffusion? 11

Final Remarks 18

2 Internet Economics and the Economics of the Internet 21

Macroeconomic Implications of Information Technologies 21

A "New Economics"? 26

Policy Implications of Internet Economics 31

The Human Factor, the Institutional Factor, and the Pace of Technology 41

II Electronic Commerce Infrastructures

3 Infrastructure: Communications Systems 47

The Current Environment 48

Privatization, Competition, and Regulation 50

Convergence and Interoperability 52

4 Infrastructure: Financial Sector and Payment Systems 57

Finance, Development, and Electronic Commerce 58

Electronic Banking and Financial Services 59

Payment Vehicles and Security 61

Issues for the Monetary Foundation of the Economy 65

5 Infrastructure: Distribution and Delivery 69

Why Distribution and Delivery Are Important? 70

Policy Changes for Distribution and Delivery 73

Digital Delivery 75

III Opportunities and Challenges for Government and Policy

6 Government Operations: Tax Regimes and Administration and Services 81

Issues of Taxation and Tariffs 81

Government Administration 96

7 Government and the Environment of Certainty and Trust 103

Legal Framework 104

Standards 115

Intellectual Property 117

Trusted Environment 121

8 Government in the International Arena 143

Functional Institutions 145

Coordinating and Regional Institutions 153

New Collaborative Groups 158

Expanding Role of the Private Sector 164

Improving the International Environment for Electronic Commerce 166

9 Government and Development: The Digital Divide 173

The Digital Divide: Rapid, but Uneven, Spread of the Internet 174

Is Government Intervention Needed? 178

Building Capabilities 179

Prerequisites 189

Policymaking in an Environment of Rapid Technological Change 191

Policymaking in the Global Environment of Overlapping Jurisdiction 192

Table 2.1 Contributions to labor productivity growth in the nonfarm business sector in the United States, 1974-99 22

Table 2.2 Business-to-business cost savings by industry 24

Table 2.3 The macroeconomic impact of electronic commerce 24

Table 3.1 Projected benefits to users from competitive telecom services in 2010, and cumulative gains, 1997-2010 49

Table 8.1 International organizations addressing e-commerce issues 144

Table 9.1 Distribution of Internet users as a percentage of regional population 175

Figure 1.1 Exponential growth of the Internet 13

Figure 1.2 Growing Internet connections 14

Figure 1.3 Internet users by region 15

Figure 1.4 Internet users by region in Latin America 16

Figure 1.5 Income and Internet penetration 18

Figure 3.1 Internet monthly access process for 20 hours of off-peak use, selected economies 49

Figure 3.2 The growing importance of Internet telephony 54

Figure 4.1 US consumers' preferred online payment methods 62

Figure 5.1 Distribution of leading Internet applications in the global freight transport market 72

Figure 5.2 Internet use in freight transport by region based on application count 73

Figure 9.1 The distribution of languages, 1999 176.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 195-200) and index.

ISBN:

0881322741

OCLC:

44426933