Bridging the digital divide in global trade

A critical question in the current policy debate is whether all countries equally benefit from digitalisation. Recent research confirms the gains of digitalisation for both countries and firms (Hjort and Tian 2025, Tian 2025), but there is less evidence on whether these gains are equally distributed. As broadband infrastructure continues to expand globally, understanding its potential to boost economic performance while inadvertently marginalising less productive economic units is crucial.

Technological change is not necessarily an inclusive process (Acemoglu 2002, Violante 2018), often excluding the poorest segments of the population (Akerman et al. 2015). In this way, digital technologies are both inherently inclusive and exclusive: they are general-purpose technologies with broad economic benefits, yet also function as network goods whose marginal benefits grow with the number of adopters. Consequently, without inclusive policies to bridge the digital divide, digital infrastructure rollout may intensify existing socio-economic inequalities between and within countries. [...]