Foreword

The biennial OECD Digital Economy Outlook examines and documents evolutions and emerging opportunities and challenges in the digital economy. It highlights how OECD countries and partner economies are taking advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet to meet their public policy objectives. Through comparative evidence, it informs policy makers of regulatory practices and policy options to help maximise the potential of the digital economy as a driver for innovation and inclusive growth. This second edition of the OECD Digital Economy Outlook provides a holistic overview of converging trends, policy developments and data on both the supply and demand sides of the digital economy, and illustrates how the digital transformation is affecting economies and societies.

The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017 has been prepared by the OECD Secretariat under the guidance of the OECD Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP), chaired by Wonki Min (Korea). It has benefited from the input of delegates to the Committee and its Working Parties on Communications Infrastructure Services Policy (CISP), on Measurement and Analysis of the Digital Economy (MADE), and on Security and Privacy in the Digital Economy (SPDE). A large part of its content builds on the responses by OECD countries and partner economies to the 2016 OECD Digital Economy Outlook Policy Questionnaire.

The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017 was prepared by the Division on Digital Economy Policy in the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation. It was produced under the direction/co-ordination of David Gierten, with assistance by Cristina Serra Vallejo. Authors include, by alphabetical order, Laurent Bernat, Frederic Bourassa, Anne Carblanc, Lauren Crean, Michael Donohue, Marie-Lou Dupont, David Gierten, Gaël Hernandez, Bong Soo Keum, Elif Koksal-Oudot, Molly Lesher, Pierre Montagnier, Sam Paltridge, Karine Perset, Lorrayne Porciuncula, Giorgio Presidente, Christian Reimsbach-Kounatze, Elettra Ronchi, Carthage Smith, Cristina Serra Vallejo, Vincenzo Spiezia, Jan Tscheke, Verena Weber, Jeremy West and Yuki Yokoromi. External authors for Chapter 7 are Primavera De Filippi, Cyrus Hodes and Nicolas Miailhe. Editorial work was undertaken by Jennifer Allain, Janine Treves, Angela Gosmann and by the OECD Public Affairs and Communications Directorate. Sarah Ferguson and María Castaño provided assistance with formatting.

Finally, the data and assistance provided by Airbnb, Akamai, General Motors, Neftcraft, and Teligen, a division of Strategy Analytics Ltc., are gratefully acknowledged, as is the assistance of other colleagues in the OECD who have provided data for the analysis.

The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2017 has been declassified by the OECD Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) on 27 July 2017 by written procedure and prepared for publication by the OECD Secretariat.