## The Haves and Have-nots Of the Digital Age

_IMF Blog, March 1, 2021_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [The Haves and Have-nots Of the Digital Age](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2021/03/01/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-the-digital-age)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2021/03/01/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-the-digital-age/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2021/03/01/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-the-digital-age/index.json)
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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Gita Bhatt
- Published: March 1, 2021

---

### Overview
- Title: The Haves and Have-nots Of the Digital Age
- Author: Gita Bhatt
- Date: March 1, 2021
- Theme: Accelerated by the pandemic, the digital future is coming faster than ever and has broad economic, social, and policy implications explored in this issue of Finance & Development magazine.

### Digital transformation: benefits and examples
- For millions, technology has been a lifeline, changing the way we work, learn, shop, and entertain ourselves.
- Pandemic-driven digital shifts highlighted:
  - Governments using mobile solutions to provide cash assistance.
  - Financial technology supporting the survival and, in some cases, growth of small- and medium-sized businesses.
  - The first national digital currency, in The Bahamas, as a glimpse of the future of money.

### Unequal outcomes and risks
- Digitalization can drive unequal outcomes in:
  - Education
  - Opportunities
  - Access to health care and financial services
- Automation has destroyed jobs, some permanently.
- The digital divide—between the digitally connected and the unconnected, across and within countries and between rural and urban areas—has amplified social and economic inequalities.
- Specific risks and concerns raised:
  - Cyber threats to the financial system (Tim Maurer, Carnegie Institute for International Peace).
  - Need to balance commercial interests with protection of privacy and data integrity (IMF economists Yan Carrière-Swallow and Vikram Haksar).
  - Issues of digital taxation, data bias and ethics, and the need for global tech cooperation.

### Policy perspectives and recommended actions
- Government role:
  - Daron Acemoğlu (MIT) emphasizes that government can and should play a regulatory role, with incentives for innovation toward “human-friendly” technologies that produce good jobs.
- Financial inclusion:
  - Hyun Song Shin and coauthors from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) elaborate on smart policies that can bring more people—particularly the poorest—into the financial system.
- Education and inclusion:
  - Sierra Leone’s Minister of Education, David Sengeh, describes steps to make his country’s education system both more digital and more inclusive.
- Infrastructure and capacity:
  - Cristina Duarte, special advisor on Africa to the UN Secretary General, stresses scaling up investment in digital infrastructure, such as access to electricity, mobile and internet coverage, and digital ID.
- Overarching principle:
  - Innovation needs to have public value and be shaped to bring everyone into the digital age.

### Additional themes in the issue
- IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath highlights the stark divergence in prospects across countries, regions, and sectors and the needed policy actions.
- Sam Bowles and Wendy Carlin argue that the pandemic, along with climate change, will alter thinking about economics and the social contract.
- Ruchir Agarwal, Ina Ganguli, and Patrick Gaule find that policies identifying and nurturing young talent from poorer countries could advance the global knowledge frontier.
- Profile: Prakash Loungani profiles Assaf Razin, an early scholar of the promise and perils of globalization.

*Source: The Haves and Have-nots Of the Digital Age, Gita Bhatt, March 1, 2021*

---


## References

- [Finance & Development](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/)
- [first national digital currency, in The Bahamas](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/fighting-pandemic-disruption-with-innovation-dorst.htm)
- [Daron Acemoğlu underscores](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/COVID-inequality-and-automation-acemoglu.htm)
- [Hyun Song Shin and coauthors](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/making-financial-innovation-more-inclusive-frost.htm)
- [Sierra Leone’s Minister of Education, David Sengeh, describes](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/david-sengeh-of-sierra-leone-on-digital-education-and-economy-trenches.htm)
- [Cristina Duarte,](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/africas-digital-future-after-COVID19-duarte.htm)
- [Tim Maurer](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/global-cyber-threat-to-financial-systems-maurer.htm)
- [Yan Carrière-Swallow and Vikram Haksar suggest](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/how-to-build-a-better-data-economy-carriere.htm)
- [digital taxation](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/taxing-big-tech-and-the-future-of-digital-services-tax-christie.htm)
- [data bias and ethics](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/new-morality-of-debt-aggarwal.htm)
- [global tech cooperation](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/international-cooperation-and-the-digital-economy-garcia.htm)
- [Gita Gopinath highlights](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/averting-a-great-divergence-gopinath.htm)
- [Sam Bowles and Wendy Carlin advance](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/rethinking-economics-by-samuel-bowles-and-wendy-carlin.htm)
- [Ruchir Agarwal, Ina Ganguli, and Patrick Gaule find](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/embracing-the-gift-of-global-talent-agarwal.htm)
- [Tel Aviv University’s Assaf Razin](https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/03/profile-of-economist-assaf-razin-telaviv-university.htm)
- [full issue](http://www.imf.org/fandd)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2021/03/01/the-haves-and-have-nots-of-the-digital-age_