Skip to content
TechPlus+

TechPlus+

Technology and Development Redux

  • Home
  • About
  • Short Bio

Category: Economics

The Real Structures Sustaining the Cyberspace Imaginary – I

1 March 202321 March 2023
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Governance, ICTD
Recreating the Imaginary If I were to ask another human being (not ChatGPT) for directions on how to get to Cyberspace, most would probably think I am joking.  Others might consider me an imbecile or conclude I must be flying Read more

AI’s Seemingly Elusive Infrastructure – II

20 February 202326 February 2023
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Economics, Human Development, ICTD
Undoubtedly, the infrastructural requirements used to produce the 2020 175 billion GPT-3 model are hefty by most standards.  But, of course, that just means that competitors now striving to generate their own creatures on the same genre must have access Read more

AI’s Seemingly Elusive Infrastructure – I

10 February 202317 February 2023
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Economics, ICTD
ChatGTP’s sudden and arguably premature success has yet again exposed the usually overlooked link between so-called “virtual” digital technologies and very tangible infrastructure.  Indeed, early adopters of the latest incarnation of GTP-3-based bots directly experienced repeated network and login failures.  Read more

ChatGPT’s New Version

31 January 20234 February 2023
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, e-governance, Economics, Innovation
Yesterday, OpenAI released a new iteration of ChatGPT, version 3.5.  To quickly check, I decided to ask some of the same questions I did back in December. The table below compares the results. ChatGPT November 2022 v3.0 January 30 2023, Read more

Chatting with ChatGPT

15 December 20222 February 2023
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Governance, Human Development
OpenAI’s new shiny chatbot, with the not-so-brilliant name of ChatGPT, has taken the world by storm, surprising most, company staff included. Evidence of the latter stems from the fact that whenever one tries to access the platform,  a message announcing Read more

ICTs and Emissions – V

19 November 202213 December 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
Walking Around the Main Gallery Unlike its basement, the abode’s main gallery is noisy, crowded and chaotic, offering a maze-like layout we need to navigate safely. Indeed, one can easily get lost, and while checking in is pretty simple, finding Read more

Digital Technologies and Sustainable Development: The Missing Link

12 November 202213 November 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
Context Nowadays, digital technologies occupy most interstices of society. While the global pandemic exposed glaring gaps, especially in developing countries, avoiding their mantra seems torturous. Undoubtedly, their rapid diffusion in the last 30 years is historical (Comin & Mestieri, 2018). Read more

ICTs and Emissions – IV

5 November 20229 November 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
Environmental Footprints As previously mentioned, data centers (DCs) depend not only on energy consumption but also require plenty of water for survival, just like humans. We thus have increasing competition for a critical resource, especially when droughts and wildfires are Read more

ICTs and Emissions – III

27 October 20229 November 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development
The Abode is a Humongous Shopping Mall As some pundits have observed, data centers (DCs) are the backbone of the digital realm – hiding in plain sight, I would add. However, they do not live alone in their noisy, albeit Read more

ICTs and Emissions – II

20 October 202222 October 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
Cyberspace Mansions In 2009, amid the Global Financial Crisis, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) announced plans to create a 1.2 billion dollar data center (DC) in Utah. Indeed, surveillance once again proved it is immune to economic disasters, regardless Read more

ICTs and Emissions – I

1 October 202212 October 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
Digital technologies’ social ubiquitousness is indisputable. Indeed, escaping their mantra seems unreal, almost dystopic, regardless of location or connectivity. The TINA (there is no alternative) principle appears to be entirely at work here. It is thereby paradoxical new ICTs are Read more

RegTech is Here!

20 September 20221 October 2022
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Economics, Governance
Modern FinTech saw the light of day with the launching of ATM machines in the late 60s. A few years later, NASDAQ was born, credit cards exploded and banks started to deploy mainframes and minicomputer computers to support their operations. Read more

Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

10 September 202226 September 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Human Development, ICTD
In a previous entry, I explored the connections between digital technologies, economic growth and the environment, using the concept of Sustainable Development (SD) as analytical reference. The figure below depicts yet another way to see the three development outcomes that Read more

More Light on Financial Inclusion

20 August 202226 September 2022
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation
In a couple of recent posts, I briefly traced the history of financial inclusion and its links to the emergence and diffusion of digital technologies. A recently published book by Nick Bernards tackles the same issue more comprehensively while taking Read more

Digital Technologies and Sustainable Development

1 July 202217 July 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation
1. Overall context Much water has already gone under the bridge on this topic. Yet the flow shows no signs of coming to a halt soon. In the early days of the so-called “Internet revolution,” only a few were connecting Read more

Financial Inclusion and Democratizing Finance – III

20 June 20224 July 2022
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD
Show me the money The impact of initiatives such as Grameen Bank (Village phone included) and M-Pesa is still under discussion. From a poverty reduction perspective, the effect has been much more limited. Many countries in the Global South have Read more

Financial Inclusion and Democratizing Finance – II

10 June 202219 June 2022
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation
Where are the banks? It seems paradoxical that the mainstream history of micro-finance/financial inclusion does not consider banks.  After all, banks are supposed to “bank the unbanked.”  So banks are not only missing from such a narrative.  They are also Read more

Financial Inclusion and Democratizing Finance – I

30 May 202219 July 2022
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Social Innovation
From Noise to Signal A couple of weeks ago, El Salvador’s CryptoPopulist President shared on social media news about an international “Bitcoin” meeting his country was hosting starting May 16.  He also listed the names of the 44 entities participating Read more

Open Data and Big Pharma

15 May 20221 June 2022
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Innovation, Open Data
In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act that modified patent and trademark law by allowing universities and small businesses to own inventions created under the funding of the Federal Government. Its core idea was to expedite the commercialization Read more

The Environment and “Socialist” States

1 May 202211 May 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Human Development, Inequality
Thirty-six years after it first broke the news for the wrong reasons, Chernobyl is back in the headlines thanks to the horrible and absurd Russian invasion. Sixteen months before the well-known Soviet nuclear meltdown of 1986, a plant located in Read more

ICTs and Development Theories – II

15 April 202227 April 2022
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
Linking ICTs to development External researchers and experts poking for the first time into ICTD might assume that the field has, 30 years after its birth, a cohesive theory on how ICTs impact development. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Read more

ICTs and Development Theories – I

1 April 202227 April 2022
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD
ICTD overview The field of ICTD first saw the light over 30 years ago1 Selected references are provided at the end of the 2nd part of this post. Its overall scope is ambitious as it covers several sectors and thematic Read more

State Capacity and Digital Technologies – I

1 March 202222 March 2022
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Governance, Human Development
To the Moon and Back It was my elder sister’s 25th birthday when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. We watched the unprecedented event on B&W TV  – our grandma openly expressing total skepticism. We then went out for a Read more

Global Wealth Distribution

15 December 20214 January 2022
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Human Development
GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the statistic most frequently used to measure wealth creation in terms of goods and services, has been the subject of critical review for the last 25 years. Green National Accounting (GNA) and the ensuing Green National Read more

A Fuzzy Das Kapital Word Cloud

1 December 202117 December 2021
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Human Development
A few months ago, the top U.S. General was summoned by a Congressional Committee to explain why “Critical Race Theory” was being taught in the military. The General’s response built on the idea that the better one knows the enemy, Read more

Waiting for yet another Industrial Revolution

5 July 202126 July 2021
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, e-governance, Economics, Human Development, ICTD, Innovation
The PC revolution. The Internet revolution. The mobile revolution. The social media revolution. The blockchain revolution. And the AI re-revolution. We seem to be living in times of Permanent Revolution. Also reminds me of the Age of Revolution that thrived Read more

Vaccine Inequality

21 March 20213 April 2021
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Governance, Human Development
Already under siege in many quarters, Globalization has now added the seemingly unstoppable spread of the Corona Virus to its already dubious credentials. As expected, not one single country has been spared, rich and poor suddenly standing on the same Read more

Contentious Politics in the AI Age

15 June 20207 August 2020
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Governance, Human Development, ICTD, Inequality
Initially touted as revolutionary and progressive in the 1990s, the lightening evolution of digital technologies, running on the coattails of continuous innovation, has been accompanied by the rise of both extreme socio-economic inequalities and loud and widespread populism, nationalism and Read more

Covid19: A “Swedish” Model?

25 May 202031 May 2020
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Human Development, Open Data
Having been trashed for the last forty years or so, Governments have unexpectedly taken back center stage thanks to the Covid19 pandemic. The virus does not need a passport to travel around the world, nor any tough immigration legislation has Read more

Natural Disasters and Carbon Concentration

15 March 20204 April 2020
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Human Development
In 1988, the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) launched the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) with the idea of promoting national and international humanitarian support to countries and regions affected by such events. Having a structured Read more

Carbon Removal Policies for the U.S?

28 February 20205 March 2020
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Innovation
Founded almost 40 years ago with the financial support of the MacArthur Foundation, the World Resources Institute (WRI) is one of the U.S most prominent research organizations working on environmental issues since its inception. The entity centers its efforts on Read more

A Glance at Carbon Dioxide Emissions Data

1 October 20196 December 2019
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics, Governance, Social Innovation
Lack of data is certainly not one of the issues at the table when discussing energy production and carbon emissions. Well-known sources for the former include the UN Statistics Division, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the U.S. Energy Information Administration Read more

ICOs: Endangered Species

12 October 201816 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Innovation
As expected, ICOs are finally cooling down. There are several reasons for this. First, ICO oversight by regulators in many countries has substantially increased. Regulators are poking not so much into new ICOs. Instead, they are doing deep dives into Read more

Uncertainty and Artificial Intelligence

20 September 201814 December 2022
Raul Zambrano
Artificial Intelligence, Book review, Economics, Inequality, Innovation
In a world where perfect information supposedly rules across the board, uncertainty certainly challenges mainstream economists. While some of the tenets of such assumption have already been addressed – via the theory of information asymmetries and the development of the Read more

The Scale of the Blockchain Scalability Constraints

30 July 201815 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics
According to the latest estimates, global Internet penetration was close to 54 percent by the end of 2017. That is roughly 4 billion people. Figures for the number of unique cell phone users show that 5 billion people have access Read more

Bitcoin Inequality

23 June 201811 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Inequality
In the short and medium-term, technology and inequality seemed to be positively correlated. In the long term, however, things are not as clear-cut. With the right policies and democratic institutions in place, technology could become a catalyst to reduce income Read more

Blockchain Mining Costs and Revenues

15 June 201815 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Innovation
In a previous post, I pushed the idea that mining is part of the blockchain economy’s real sector. Unlike financial speculation, mining requires investment in hardware, electricity, space, human resources, etc. This also applies to small miners who will undoubtedly Read more

Checking ICOs, Again

6 June 201819 June 2018
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Innovation
It has already been three months since I last checked the ICO scene. At the time, I suggested ICOs were probably slowing down. New data seems to confirm this but all points to other trends not detected before. Figure 1 Read more

The Real Sector of the Blockchain Economy

31 May 201815 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics
Most cryptocurrencies are now over 60% down from their December 2017 peak. While prices are still quite volatile, the trend for the last five months is decidedly downwards. While some still expect a recovery to the glorious days of last Read more

Blockchain Mining Revisited

21 May 201815 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Inequality
Blockchain mining cannot catch a break when it comes to environmental sustainability. This is especially true for Bitcoin mining that seemingly has an insatiable appetite for electricity. A recent paper suggests that by 2020 Bitcoin mining will consume as much Read more

Democracy and Capitalism: Friends or Foes?

30 April 20185 May 2018
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Governance, Human Development
The post-WWII era can be arguably defined as the golden age of democratic capitalism – at least from the perspective of developed or industrialized countries. Rebuilding Europe and pumping capital into Japan triggered a long economic boom that lasted until Read more

ICO Update: A Slowdown in Sight?

7 March 20189 March 2018
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Innovation
ICO data for last February is now available and shown in Figure 1 below. We can immediately see that both the number of ICOs and the total investment volume has decreased. The latter, which amounted to 1.2 billion USD for Read more

Chasing ICOs (away?)

7 February 201816 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, ICTD, Social Innovation
Recent events seem to suggest the cryptocurrency bubble is finally starting to deflate. Bitcoin, Ethereum and most of their crypto cousins are significantly down while regulators in several countries are finally beginning to take action on the ground. Nobel laureate economists Read more

Cryptocurrencies and Development

14 January 201816 February 2021
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Human Development, ICTD
While not the only cryptocurrency around, Bitcoin was the first to solve the well-known double-spending problem that characterizes digital currencies. Tackling the issue demanded the creation of blockchain technology (BCT) combined with a brute force algorithm known as proof of Read more

The Butterfly Effect

7 January 201814 January 2018
Raul Zambrano
Climate Change, Economics
The weather forecast indicated that heavy rain will commence overnight, lasting close to 36 hours and, in the process, dumping from 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 centimeters) on the ground. Yes, a lot of rain was expected. But Read more

Blockchain ICOs Revisited

20 August 2017
Raul Zambrano
Blockchain, Economics, Inequality
A couple of weeks ago, Coindesk launched an ICO tracker which seems quite comprehensive and includes data starting in 2014. It has information on 164 ICOs1 I downloaded the data on 18 August but was unable to replicate some of Read more

Tax Season 2017

11 April 20175 May 2017
Raul Zambrano
Economics
Spring finally arrived but today feels more like summer. Not sure it will last but in I know New York Springs usually tend to be relatively short. Summer seems to always be extremely eager to enter the scene. In any Read more

Towards a Philosophy of Technology

14 December 201621 March 2019
Raul Zambrano
Book review, Economics, ICTD
Written back in 1984, the content of Albert Borgmann’s book loudly resonates today. Borgmann argues that contemporary life is shaped by technology that stamps its imprint all over the place, and can even define its whole character. However, such a Read more

More on Measuring Human Development

26 June 201621 March 2019
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Human Development
In a previous blog, I examined the relation between GDP and the Human Development Index (HDI) which has been published annually for the last 25 years by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). In this post, I want to dive a Read more

Is Postcapitalism on its way?

6 June 201631 May 2017
Raul Zambrano
Book review, Economics, ICTD
For most people, including many well-known economists, the 2007 global economic crisis was a rude awakening: It seemed to have come out of nowhere, but it certainly managed to bring deep pain to billions of people – and pockets. Soon Read more

Saving Capitalism – or Democracy?

26 May 201631 May 2017
Raul Zambrano
Book review, Economics
Few will doubt both globalization and technology are putting many people under economic stress. Symptoms of this in the US and other industrialized countries include raising inequality, stagnant wages, less opportunities and decreased social mobility, and little to no improvement Read more

Measuring Well-Being and Human Development

12 May 201631 May 2017
Raul Zambrano
Economics, Human Development
GDP: Thanks, but no thanks A recent issue of The Economist had a couple of articles (plus the issue’s cover) on measuring prosperity, defined as the advance in living standards overtime. Nowadays, gross domestic product, GDP,1 We can also include Read more

Economics Rules or Economics Rule?

1 April 201631 May 2017
Raul Zambrano
Economics
After the 2008 crisis, many observers expected changes of some sort in current economic thinking and academic teaching. After all, most mainstream economists never saw the crisis coming  – with some even claiming the era of crises was over. For Read more

Economics and Long Term Ideas

27 November 201521 March 2019
Raul Zambrano
Book review, Economics
No doubt economics has come a long way since the times of Adam Smith almost 250 years ago. If we were to summarize its dynamics of change, we could say that economics has moved from a broad political economy approach Read more

The future of automation and the automation of the future

26 June 201521 March 2019
Raul Zambrano
Book review, Economics, ICTD
Chaplin’s 1936 Modern Times, by now a classic of silent cinema, offers an inside glimpse of the automation of industrial production in the first part of the 20th Century. Our little tramp has somehow found a job in a factory, Read more

ICTs and Inequality: An Overview

4 May 201518 January 2021
Raul Zambrano
Economics, ICTD, Social Innovation
Not without reason, Inequality seems to have taken command of most development, socio-economic and even political discussions. The fact that a supposedly “technical” and long (and excellent too!) book such as Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century became a best-seller of Read more

Failing Markets and Economic Theory

21 January 201018 January 2015
Raul Zambrano
Economics, MyTake
“How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by John Cassidy is an excellent book that tackles the origins, impact and consequences of the recent economic crisis. It also provides a “What is to be done” (a la Lenin) in Read more

Economic Crisis Book

3 May 200914 July 2016
Raul Zambrano
Economics, MyTake
I just finished reading “The Origin of the Financial Crises” by George Cooper which was published last year. The book is subtitled Central Banks, Credit bubbles and the Efficient Market Fallacy which reveals right away the approach the author is Read more

Comments on the Economic Crisis

22 February 200914 July 2016
Raul Zambrano
Economics, MyTake
Although the root causes of the current financial and economic crisis are still being debated (and will continue until the next large crisis hits), one issue that stems out of of the current discussions is the softening in the last Read more
TechPlus+
© 2023
Powered by WordPress
Theme: Masonic by ThemeGrill