Digital projects in education, healthcare, and administrative services displayed net present values and low implementation costs, but wide variation was found in net benefits across policy options A fully digital solution is not always the best option for balancing costs and benefits. Adequate integration of digital and human inputs is often necessary. Since digital applications feature low or negligible marginal cost, scale is critical in producing large social net benefits.
Digital projects in education, healthcare, and administrative services displayed net present values and low implementation costs, but wide variation was found in net benefits across policy options A fully digital solution is not always the best option for balancing costs and benefits. Adequate integration of digital and human inputs is often necessary. Since digital applications feature low or negligible marginal cost, scale is critical in producing large social net benefits.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, during the
last decade, consumer access to and use of digital
technology, particularly through smartphones,
has increased markedly. Nonetheless, governments
in the region have limited resources for
projects that can harness the new digital channels
to provide public services. As many digital public
services can both expand access to services and
be implemented at a lower cost, governments
have a range of opportunities to improve public
service delivery through digitalization. The availability
of digital solutions with high benefits and
low costs (low-hanging fruit) provides a strong
motivation for governments to improve the efficiency
and quality of public services.
