Submitted by CARPE DIEM

THE ECONOMIST — Technology is spreading to emerging markets faster than it has ever done anywhere. The World Bank looked at how much time elapsed between the invention of something and its widespread adoption (defined as when 80% of countries that use a technology first report it; see above).

For 19th-century technologies the gap was long: 120 years for trains and open-hearth steel furnaces, 100 years for the telephone. For aviation and radio, invented in the early 20th century, the lag was 60 years. But for the PC and CAT scans the gap was around 20 years and for mobile phones just 16. In most countries, most technologies are available in some degree.

See also this previous CD post on cell phones in Niger reducing the dispersion of grain prices, improving consumer and trader welfare.

More technology news: In April, the communist regime in North Korea plans to lift its 4-year ban on the use of mobile phones. Maybe that will reduce price dispersion like in Niger, except that prices are probably all controlled in N. Korea by the government, so there is no dispersion.

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