A global race over 5G is raging, but there has been little systematic exploration of the telecom sector with a global perspective. Rabah Arezki, Vianney Dequiedt, Rachel Yuting Fan, and Carlo Maria Rossotto use a novel ranking in the adoption of telecom technology standards around the world, documenting the complementarity between telecom liberalisation and regulatory independence in driving a sustained pace of technology adoption. They also show a positive and economically significant effect of telecom adoption on stock returns, pointing to significant spillovers of telecom to the rest of the economy.
