The paper investigates the pace of technology adoption in telecom technology post liberalization and its effect on stock returns using a new global panel dataset.

Results are twofold. First, evidence points to the complementarity between telecom liberalization and regulatory independence in driving a sustained pace of technology adoption.

Second, results show a positive and economically significant effect of telecom adoption on stock returns pointing to significant spillovers of telecom to the rest of the economy.

Paper by the AfDB