Misleading Digital Giant Claims About The Economic Impact Of Their Cable Investments
Digital Giants regularly boast about the impact of their network investments on humanity's welfare. Undoubtedly, good Internet infrastructure leads to new services and raises productivity. It is essential to a modern society. But quantifying how much subsea cables boost real GDP is a hopeless statistical task because economic models often struggle to explain growth and economic development. For example, more Internet services is both a cause and also an effect of economic growth. As incomes rise, demand for Internet services increase in terms of news consumption, entertainment, and the general quest for information. Give a poor African nation better cellular coverage and higher data throughput and TikTok consumption rises. But it would be a stretch to claim TikTok generates net economic growth. Furthermore, most Internet services cannibalize at least to some extent their non-Internet counterparts such as newspapers, book sales, phone calls, library visits, etc. Disentangling...