Analysis of the digital platform economy around the world: A network DEA model for identifying policy priorities

Figures & data

Figure 1. The digital ecosystem as a two-stage process.

Figure 2. Configuration of the digital platform economy.

Table 1. Output set used to assess the digital platform economy: Descriptive statistics for 2019.

	Stage 1: Digital institutions and digital platforms $({\theta }^1)$		Stage 2: Platform-dependent firms and digital users $({\theta }^2)$
	Digital institutions	Digital multisided platforms	Digital users	Platform-dependent firms
	y1	y2	y3	y4	Obs.
Africa	12.77 (9.19)	12.59 (7.18)	16.23 (6.18)	16.53 (5.78)	23
Asia	26.69 (16.76)	30.67 (14.41)	27.09 (14.64)	30.34 (12.73)	31
Americas	31.08 (18.94)	30.48 (20.74)	32.48 (19.83)	31.13 (20.85)	18
Europe	51.86 (18.99)	49.13 (18.32)	48.78 (17.67)	47.98 (18.65)	42
Oceania	71.58 (3.05)	69.78 (0.76)	71.63 (7.97)	55.87 (1.43)	2
Total	34.06 (22.63)	34.09 (21.07)	34.02 (20.23)	34.25 (19.40)	116

Standard deviation is presented in brackets.

Figure 3. Network (two-stage) DEA model: results.

Table 2. Network DEA model: Results.

	Stage 1: Digital institutions and digital platforms $({\theta }^1)$	Stage 2: Platform-dependent firms and digital users $({\theta }^2)$	Overall efficiency$({\theta }^{\ast }={\theta }^1\times {\theta }^2)$
	Mean (Std dev.)	Mean (Std dev.)	Mean (Std dev.)	Obs.
Africa	0.1597 (0.0951)	0.2089 (0.0675)	0.0334 (0.0357)	23
Asia	0.3626 (0.1711)	0.3670 (0.1461)	0.1331 (0.1330)	31
Americas	0.3757 (0.2290)	0.3728 (0.2264)	0.1401 (0.2640)	18
Europe	0.5969 (0.2128)	0.5508 (0.1923)	0.3288 (0.2358)	42
Oceania	0.8171 (0.0095)	0.7452 (0.0786)	0.6089 (0.0713)	2
Total	0.4130 (0.2477)	0.4065 (0.2113)	0.1679 (0.2291)	116

Standard deviation is presented in brackets.

Figure 4. The digital platform economy: system configuration and policy priorities.

Table 3. Overall efficiency $\left({\theta }^{\ast }\right)$ for the different configurations of the digital platform economy.

	Mean overall efficiency $\left({\theta }^{\ast }\right)$	Standard deviation	Obs.
Cluster 1: Digital institutions/Digital users	0.1971	0.2414	34
Cluster 2: Digital institutions/Platform-dependent firms	0.2011	0.2225	18
Cluster 3: Digital platforms/Digital users	0.1708	0.2383	23
Cluster 4: Digital platforms/Platform-dependent firms	0.1312	0.2183	41
Full sample	0.1679	0.2291	116

Table 4. Estimated improvements in the digital platform economy for the selected countries.

	Norway			Singapore			Costa Rica
	${\theta }^1$	${\theta }^2$	${\theta }^{\ast }$	${\theta }^1$	${\theta }^2$	${\theta }^{\ast }$	${\theta }^1$	${\theta }^2$	${\theta }^{\ast }$
Panel A. – Efficiency estimations (equations (1)(1) ${\theta }^1=max\sum _{\mathit{d}=1}^D{\gamma }_d{\mathrm{z}}_{\mathit{di}}$(1) -(2(2) ${\theta }^2=max\left(\sum _{\mathit{y}=1}^Y{\omega }_y{\mathrm{y}}_{\mathit{yi}}\right)/{\theta }^1$(2) ))	0.9421	0.8061	0.7594	0.6705	0.6588	0.4417	0.3938	0.3916	0.1542
Panel B. – y1: Improvement in digital institutions	1.0000	0.8404	0.8404	0.7143	0.6690	0.4779	0.4789	0.4699	0.2250
Percentage improvement	6.15%	4.26%	10.66%	6.53%	1.55%	8.18%	21.61%	19.99%	45.93%
Panel C. – y2: Improvement in digital platforms	0.9646	0.9548	0.9210	0.7823	0.7834	0.6129	0.4650	0.4653	0.2164
Percentage improvement	2.03%	18.45%	21.28%	16.67%	18.91%	38.74%	18.08%	18.82%	40.30%
Panel D. – y3: Improvement in digital users	0.9421	1.0000	0.9421	0.6705	0.7082	0.4748	0.3938	0.4420	0.1741
Percentage improvement	0.00%	24.05%	24.05%	0.00%	7.50%	7.50%	0.00%	12.87%	12.87%
Panel E. – y4: Improvement in platform-dependent firms	0.9421	0.9004	0.8483	0.6705	0.7716	0.5174	0.3938	0.4883	0.1923
Percentage improvement	0.00%	11.70%	11.70%	0.00%	17.12%	17.12%	0.00%	24.69%	24.69%

Equations (1)(1) ${\theta }^1=max\sum _{\mathit{d}=1}^D{\gamma }_d{\mathrm{z}}_{\mathit{di}}$(1) and (2(2) ${\theta }^2=max\left(\sum _{\mathit{y}=1}^Y{\omega }_y{\mathrm{y}}_{\mathit{yi}}\right)/{\theta }^1$(2) ) are used to compute the results presented in Panel A (see Appendix 3). The results presented in Panels B-E emerge from re-computing the network model (equations (1)(1) ${\theta }^1=max\sum _{\mathit{d}=1}^D{\gamma }_d{\mathrm{z}}_{\mathit{di}}$(1) and (2(2) ${\theta }^2=max\left(\sum _{\mathit{y}=1}^Y{\omega }_y{\mathrm{y}}_{\mathit{yi}}\right)/{\theta }^1$(2) )) after additional resources – which are equivalent to 10 index points – are distributed to the corresponding variable of the digital platform economy.

Table A1. The Digital Platform Economy index (DPE).

	Sub-indexes	Pillars	Variables (entrepreneurship/digital)
Digital Platform Economy	Digital Technology Infrastructure	Digital access	Digital access/Institutions
			Digital access/Digital technology
		Digital freedom	Digital freedom/Institutions
			Digital freedom/Digital technology
		Digital protection	Digital protection/Institutions
			Digital protection/Digital technology
	Digital User Citizenship	Digital literacy	Digital literacy/Institutions
			Digital literacy/Users
		Digital openness	Digital openness/Institutions
			Digital openness/Digital technology
		Digital rights	Digital rights/Institutions
			Digital rights/Digital technology
	Digital Multisided Platform	Networking	Networking/Agents
			Networking/Users
		Matchmaking	Matchmaking/Agents
			Matchmaking/Users
		Financial facilitation	Financial facilitation/Agents
			Financial facilitation/Users
	Digital Technology Entrepreneurship	Digital adaptation	Digital adoption/Agents
			Digital adoption/Digital technology
		Technology absorption	Technology absorption/Agents
			Technology absorption/Digital technology
		Technology transfer	Technology transfer/Agents
			Technology transfer/Digital technology

Table A2. Data used to build the Digital Platform Economy index (DPE).

	Sub-index	Data sources
Digital Platform Economy	Digital Technology Infrastructure	Corruption Perception Index Freedom House Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum) Global Cybersecurity Index (International Telecommunication Unit) Index of Economic Freedom Network Readiness Index (World Economic Forum) World Telecommunication (ICT Indicators database)
	Digital User Citizenship	Digital Country Index Executive Opinion Survey (World Economic Forum) Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum) Global Talent Competitiveness Report International Property Rights Index (Property Rights Alliance) Rule of Law Index (World Justice) Securelist statistics (developed by Kaspersky) UNCTAD World Telecommunication (ICT Indicators database)
	Digital Multisided Platforms	Dealroom (www.dealroom.co) Developer Survey Results Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum) Global Financial Inclusion index (World Bank) Global Innovation Index Global Talent Competitiveness Report Network Readiness Index (World Economic Forum)
	Digital Technology Entrepreneurship	Data Centers Catalog Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum) Global Innovation Index Global Talent Competitiveness Report Network Readiness Index (World Economic Forum) Startup rankings

Source: Szerb et al. (2022).

Table A3. Digital platform economy index (DPE) 2019: Country data.

	Country	y1: Institutions	y2: Digital multisided platforms	y3: Digital users	y4: Platform-dependent firms	Digital platform economy (DPE)
1	Albania	21.35	21.47	20.15	19.09	20.52
2	Algeria	11.13	10.31	12.89	15.56	12.47
3	Argentina	31.81	28.44	33.15	27.99	30.35
4	Armenia	24.35	25.40	19.44	30.80	25.00
5	Australia	73.74	69.24	77.27	56.89	69.28
6	Austria	63.74	50.02	57.61	56.57	56.99
7	Azerbaijan	25.28	17.14	27.05	26.14	23.91
8	Bahrain	34.18	33.33	12.59	30.40	27.63
9	Bangladesh	10.44	10.87	9.64	13.78	11.18
10	Belgium	65.79	64.85	59.77	59.49	62.48
11	Benin	5.02	9.47	13.17	10.48	9.54
12	Bosnia and Herzegovina	29.41	21.31	18.66	16.62	21.50
13	Botswana	21.65	15.85	21.86	18.39	19.44
14	Brazil	29.51	36.35	27.94	31.17	31.24
15	Bulgaria	36.85	34.75	33.60	34.84	35.01
16	Burundi	5.32	2.33	10.37	9.23	6.81
17	Cambodia	5.45	10.42	11.20	12.17	9.81
18	Cameroon	8.34	9.52	15.29	10.13	10.82
19	Canada	75.37	78.83	81.34	77.13	78.17
20	Chile	36.70	41.30	38.66	36.85	38.38
21	China	19.15	29.88	28.38	34.80	28.05
22	Colombia	31.50	26.00	27.47	27.05	28.01
23	Costa Rica	35.28	30.67	36.02	35.03	34.25
24	Croatia	41.38	33.94	34.66	28.96	34.73
25	Cyprus	50.12	43.48	37.09	46.35	44.26
26	Czech Republic	51.64	45.82	54.87	43.12	48.86
27	Denmark	78.20	73.30	68.39	64.32	71.05
28	Dominican Republic	30.94	16.11	14.61	15.99	19.41
29	Ecuador	22.22	18.66	24.30	20.02	21.30
30	Egypt	20.37	16.94	17.58	23.12	19.50
31	El Salvador	15.46	17.41	16.09	16.76	16.43
32	Estonia	63.10	57.42	64.01	55.12	59.91
33	Ethiopia	0.71	5.43	8.25	9.54	5.98
34	Finland	71.50	67.09	70.86	66.05	68.87
35	France	63.52	60.26	64.94	65.34	63.51
36	Georgia	26.22	25.15	32.18	22.16	26.43
37	Germany	67.61	56.26	70.30	63.10	64.32
38	Greece	37.71	31.73	35.44	38.84	35.93
39	Guatemala	10.66	15.02	16.44	16.68	14.70
40	Honduras	10.84	13.92	15.01	15.16	13.73
41	Hong Kong	61.99	58.71	56.07	56.88	58.41
42	Hungary	41.77	37.98	35.87	37.75	38.34
43	Iceland	70.66	65.56	48.74	65.34	62.57
44	India	19.76	20.76	23.06	31.66	23.81
45	Indonesia	18.56	24.74	19.88	29.62	23.20
46	Iran	10.63	28.79	16.54	22.10	19.52
47	Ireland	66.00	65.29	63.20	69.49	65.99
48	Israel	48.24	66.88	48.52	60.89	56.13
49	Italy	40.74	46.07	50.26	47.30	46.09
50	Jamaica	18.24	22.40	20.71	17.51	19.71
51	Japan	60.99	44.20	68.18	53.74	56.78
52	Jordan	22.73	23.72	22.47	31.52	25.11
53	Kazakhstan	28.25	20.18	24.27	21.42	23.53
54	Kenya	16.01	16.57	17.45	19.76	17.45
55	Korea	57.90	59.51	54.59	53.18	56.30
56	Kuwait	19.63	27.82	13.92	25.55	21.73
57	Kyrgyzstan	10.42	11.77	9.74	14.11	11.51
58	Latvia	46.67	44.60	41.95	37.95	42.79
59	Lebanon	5.58	20.11	24.05	20.80	17.63
60	Lithuania	47.07	46.20	45.47	38.31	44.26
61	Luxembourg	73.59	60.25	65.48	62.88	65.55
62	Macedonia	26.73	31.21	22.81	17.32	24.52
63	Madagascar	4.36	6.42	5.10	12.90	7.20
64	Malawi	7.97	5.10	13.72	11.80	9.65
65	Malaysia	42.02	44.03	41.55	40.45	42.01
66	Mali	6.45	5.83	14.76	13.84	10.22
67	Malta	55.28	59.34	43.29	55.07	53.25
68	Mauritius	35.93	28.51	33.44	29.56	31.86
69	Mexico	31.51	26.32	31.53	28.06	29.36
70	Moldova	26.83	20.95	27.53	22.05	24.34
71	Mongolia	7.54	21.87	19.86	19.85	17.28
72	Montenegro	28.56	26.69	26.58	31.75	28.40
73	Morocco	29.97	25.63	21.80	19.95	24.34
74	Namibia	6.25	19.48	23.82	20.29	17.46
75	Nepal	8.05	11.96	14.31	11.98	11.58
76	Netherlands	89.49	86.26	74.35	78.65	82.19
77	New Zealand	69.43	70.31	66.00	54.86	65.15
78	Nigeria	11.63	11.97	12.62	18.46	13.67
79	Norway	84.40	73.46	74.98	63.68	74.13
80	Oman	33.33	29.25	31.80	20.53	28.73
81	Pakistan	12.82	13.32	12.28	17.45	13.97
82	Panama	29.55	23.68	28.28	30.19	27.93
83	Paraguay	15.02	13.33	17.66	16.44	15.61
84	Peru	24.28	20.37	24.46	25.30	23.60
85	Philippines	22.49	24.83	22.75	27.33	24.35
86	Poland	42.44	40.58	42.33	36.58	40.48
87	Portugal	50.99	50.45	50.65	50.72	50.70
88	Qatar	42.31	46.85	36.42	36.98	40.64
89	Romania	35.37	29.83	35.70	30.65	32.89
90	Russia	24.82	37.94	31.26	36.28	32.57
91	Rwanda	7.34	7.62	13.49	18.96	11.85
92	Saudi Arabia	28.13	30.91	22.76	35.13	29.23
93	Senegal	13.79	9.70	18.89	14.72	14.27
94	Serbia	27.74	28.78	28.70	24.67	27.47
95	Singapore	55.13	58.48	47.66	61.16	55.61
96	Slovakia	43.51	38.76	43.98	35.31	40.39
97	Slovenia	49.19	42.72	45.84	42.26	45.00
98	South Africa	28.53	25.29	23.71	28.11	26.41
99	Spain	53.97	52.50	53.06	53.73	53.32
100	Sri Lanka	9.13	23.35	16.72	23.72	18.23
101	Sweden	78.32	79.47	74.24	74.32	76.59
102	Switzerland	75.50	69.35	74.63	84.84	76.08
103	Taiwan	48.99	53.96	51.33	33.57	46.96
104	Tanzania	7.24	9.53	12.88	9.46	9.78
105	Thailand	22.09	32.16	25.28	29.19	27.18
106	Tunisia	19.24	20.17	22.15	22.63	21.05
107	Turkey	33.22	35.40	27.50	32.67	32.20
108	Uganda	7.32	8.30	11.52	16.89	11.01
109	Ukraine	23.10	30.31	26.93	36.60	29.24
110	United Arab Emirates	43.15	50.52	33.35	45.18	43.05
111	United Kingdom	80.11	84.77	83.51	81.27	82.41
112	United States	80.73	87.41	79.00	92.22	84.84
113	Uruguay	29.84	32.36	51.94	30.70	36.21
114	Vietnam	12.29	29.81	18.00	21.18	20.32
115	Zambia	12.19	10.97	16.39	14.03	13.39
116	Zimbabwe	6.91	8.66	12.06	12.40	10.01

Table A4. Digital platform economy: Efficiency results (Stage 1: θ¹; Stage 2: θ²; Overall: θ*).

	Country	Efficiency Stage 1 $\left({\theta }^1\right)$	Efficiency Stage 2 $\left({\theta }^2\right)$	Overall Efficiency $({\theta }^{\ast }={\theta }^1\times {\theta }^2)$
1	Albania	0.2477	0.2103	0.0521
2	Algeria	0.1243	0.1673	0.0208
3	Argentina	0.3552	0.3521	0.1251
4	Armenia	0.2918	0.3293	0.0961
5	Australia	0.8238	0.8007	0.6596
6	Austria	0.7106	0.6693	0.4756
7	Azerbaijan	0.2813	0.3338	0.0939
8	Bahrain	0.3859	0.3165	0.1221
9	Bangladesh	0.1249	0.1475	0.0184
10	Belgium	0.7498	0.6302	0.4725
11	Benin	0.1075	0.1762	0.0189
12	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.3276	0.2171	0.0711
13	Botswana	0.2412	0.2531	0.0611
14	Brazil	0.4153	0.3535	0.1468
15	Bulgaria	0.4117	0.3714	0.1529
16	Burundi	0.0587	0.1432	0.0084
17	Cambodia	0.1183	0.1561	0.0185
18	Cameroon	0.1089	0.1675	0.0182
19	Canada	0.9053	0.8617	0.7801
20	Chile	0.4723	0.4225	0.1995
21	China	0.3403	0.4233	0.1441
22	Colombia	0.3514	0.3113	0.1094
23	Costa Rica	0.3938	0.3916	0.1542
24	Croatia	0.4616	0.3825	0.1766
25	Cyprus	0.5594	0.5173	0.2894
26	Czech Republic	0.5765	0.5842	0.3368
27	Denmark	0.8736	0.7113	0.6214
28	Dominican Republic	0.3428	0.2307	0.0791
29	Ecuador	0.2479	0.2653	0.0658
30	Egypt	0.2273	0.2641	0.0600
31	El Salvador	0.1991	0.1845	0.0367
32	Estonia	0.7047	0.6744	0.4753
33	Ethiopia	0.0586	0.1429	0.0084
34	Finland	0.7988	0.7366	0.5884
35	France	0.7097	0.6943	0.4928
36	Georgia	0.2930	0.3298	0.0966
37	Germany	0.7543	0.7716	0.5820
38	Greece	0.4208	0.4418	0.1859
39	Guatemala	0.1713	0.1982	0.0339
40	Honduras	0.1590	0.1745	0.0277
41	Hong Kong	0.6926	0.6050	0.4190
42	Hungary	0.4665	0.4110	0.1917
43	Iceland	0.7893	0.7010	0.5533
44	India	0.2383	0.3399	0.0810
45	Indonesia	0.2824	0.3433	0.0969
46	Iran	0.3245	0.3029	0.0983
47	Ireland	0.7546	0.7360	0.5554
48	Israel	0.7630	0.7158	0.5462
49	Italy	0.5268	0.5504	0.2900
50	Jamaica	0.2559	0.2351	0.0602
51	Japan	0.6793	0.7921	0.5381
52	Jordan	0.2725	0.3377	0.0920
53	Kazakhstan	0.3146	0.2840	0.0893
54	Kenya	0.1905	0.2118	0.0403
55	Korea	0.6847	0.5746	0.3934
56	Kuwait	0.3173	0.3006	0.0954
57	Kyrgyzstan	0.1346	0.1549	0.0208
58	Latvia	0.5215	0.4322	0.2254
59	Lebanon	0.2248	0.3804	0.0855
60	Lithuania	0.5344	0.4694	0.2509
61	Luxembourg	0.8209	0.7271	0.5969
62	Macedonia	0.3568	0.2529	0.0902
63	Madagascar	0.0732	0.1525	0.0112
64	Malawi	0.0886	0.1675	0.0148
65	Malaysia	0.5055	0.4406	0.2227
66	Mali	0.0720	0.1561	0.0112
67	Malta	0.6795	0.5952	0.4044
68	Mauritius	0.4006	0.3746	0.1501
69	Mexico	0.3516	0.3455	0.1215
70	Moldova	0.2991	0.3102	0.0928
71	Mongolia	0.2461	0.3008	0.0740
72	Montenegro	0.3190	0.3397	0.1084
73	Morocco	0.3345	0.2364	0.0791
74	Namibia	0.2187	0.3658	0.0800
75	Nepal	0.1363	0.1758	0.0240
76	Netherlands	1.0000	0.8275	0.8275
77	New Zealand	0.8104	0.6896	0.5588
78	Nigeria	0.1377	0.1969	0.0271
79	Norway	0.9421	0.8061	0.7594
80	Oman	0.3721	0.3394	0.1263
81	Pakistan	0.1531	0.1867	0.0286
82	Panama	0.3295	0.3528	0.1162
83	Paraguay	0.1677	0.1884	0.0316
84	Peru	0.2709	0.2884	0.0781
85	Philippines	0.2840	0.2983	0.0847
86	Poland	0.4742	0.4357	0.2066
87	Portugal	0.5831	0.5378	0.3136
88	Qatar	0.5359	0.4049	0.2170
89	Romania	0.3947	0.3893	0.1537
90	Russia	0.4323	0.4392	0.1899
91	Rwanda	0.0876	0.2029	0.0178
92	Saudi Arabia	0.3536	0.3815	0.1349
93	Senegal	0.1535	0.2220	0.0341
94	Serbia	0.3308	0.3028	0.1002
95	Singapore	0.6705	0.6588	0.4417
96	Slovakia	0.4858	0.4676	0.2271
97	Slovenia	0.5491	0.4938	0.2711
98	South Africa	0.3185	0.3101	0.0988
99	Spain	0.6080	0.5670	0.3448
100	Sri Lanka	0.2635	0.3217	0.0848
101	Sweden	0.9158	0.7935	0.7267
102	Switzerland	0.8433	0.9175	0.7738
103	Taiwan	0.6172	0.5528	0.3412
104	Tanzania	0.1088	0.1504	0.0164
105	Thailand	0.3667	0.3485	0.1278
106	Tunisia	0.2316	0.2437	0.0564
107	Turkey	0.4057	0.3527	0.1431
108	Uganda	0.0949	0.1856	0.0176
109	Ukraine	0.3460	0.4226	0.1462
110	United Arab Emirates	0.5775	0.5026	0.2902
111	United Kingdom	0.9722	0.8888	0.8641
112	United States	1.0000	1.0000	1.0000
113	Uruguay	0.3702	0.5544	0.2052
114	Vietnam	0.3369	0.2852	0.0961
115	Zambia	0.1361	0.1735	0.0236
116	Zimbabwe	0.0989	0.1415	0.0140

Szerb, L., Komlosi, E., Acs, Z. J., Lafuente, E., & Song, A. (2022). The digital platform economy index: 2020. Springer Briefs in Economics. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89651-5

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