WBG | eTrade for all

Digital Trade for Development

Digital Trade for Development explores the opportunities and challenges for developing economies arising from digital trade and discusses the role of international cooperation in tackling these opportunities and challenges.

The report considers policy actions in the areas of digital infrastructure, skills, international support for capacity development, and the regulatory and policy environment. Specific policy issues include the WTO e-commerce moratorium, regulation of cross-border data flows, competition policies and consumer protection.

Co-published in 2023 by the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Bank and the WTO.

Ethiopia digital mal - ImagineWorld for Adobe Stock

40 Million People in Djibouti and Ethiopia to Reap Gains from Expansion of Digital Economy

Digital Financial Services can bring inclusion and growth to Mali

Digital Conglomerates in East Asia: Navigating Competition Policy Challenges

Conglomeration has traditionally been prevalent in Asia, a trend that is currently exacerbated by the characteristics of digital markets. While conglomerates offer important benefits, from economies of scale and diversification to the development of new products, they can also have a negative impact on market dynamics.

WBG COP28-DigitalTransformationLivablePlanetV2

COP28: Digital Transformation on a Livable Planet

Fisherman Andre Ferguson check his ropes as he heads out from Pile Bay, Barbados for a day of fishing.

Barbados’ Fisheries Go Digital

Expanding internet access and affordability could help workers in developing countries take advantage of productivity gains from AI. Copyright: Sarah Farhat/World Bank

Will artificial intelligence change the course for human development?

The digitalization of capital markets and boosting bond market efficiencies

Young workers are using digital platforms to access jobs from all over the globe and embracing online gig work. Copyright: Arne Hoel

Digital pathfinders: The role of youth in the online gig economy

Digital Payments and the COVID-19 Shock: The Role of Preexisting Conditions in Banking, Infrastructure, Human Capabilities, and Digital Regulation

Treating data collected pre- and post-COVID-19 as a quasi-experiment, this paper examines the importance of presumed enablers and safeguards in driving the observed expansion of digital payments and digital financial inclusion. The analysis interacts drivers of digital payment usage with a country-specific proxy of the severity of the COVID-19 shock, leveraging variation in both the drivers and the quasi-treatment (the COVID-19 shock) to identify the parameters. Although regulation of banks and digital economic activity were correlated with digital payments before and during the pandemic, the capabilities of users and connectivity (to electricity, the internet, and mobile telephony) were responsible for increased use of digital financial services in response to the shock. An interpretation is that governments and the private sector were able to overcome underdeveloped banking systems and weak regulation of the digital economy, but only where there was adequate digital infrastructure, connectivity, and a high share of the population that understood and could make use of digital payments.