New research provides a conceptual framework for thinking about how to measure the ways digital infrastructure creates value.
Digital technologies are now the backbone of modern societies, underpinning everything from service delivery to financial transactions. Yet in most countries, many of these critical services remain fragmented, duplicative, and designed in silos — tied to individual programmes or agencies rather than treated as infrastructure. This fragmentation leads to costly inefficiencies, missed opportunities for cross-sector innovation, and barriers to inclusion. These costs are not only technical. They are social, economic, and political. Governments continue to invest in multiple digital systems without capturing economies of scale or the spill overs and externalities digital infrastructure can generate. One reason this problem persists is that we lack the tools to think horizontally — to see digital not just as service delivery or technology, but as a foundational layer that enables interactions across government, markets, and society. Some recent efforts have attempted to think this way — including the India Stack, the Eurostack, and Digital Public Infrastructure. However, traditional investment and evaluation tools, such as cost-benefit analysis or value-for-money metrics, are poorly suited to measuring the long-term, indirect, and systemic effects of infrastructure — digital or otherwise.
To fill this gap, this paper proposes four significant contributions:
- It defines the infrastructural nature of digital systems. We identify the characteristics that make digital systems and services to function as infrastructure. This helps policymakers and funders evaluate whether their digital investments are likely to generate long-term public value.
- It analyses how digital infrastructure shapes economic dynamics. We explore how each infrastructural characteristic — such as reusability, interoperability, standards, high-value data and public oversight — can influence markets, inclusion, and public service delivery, highlighting both the potential gains and associated risks.
- It proposes a public value measurement framework for DPI. We introduce a structured approach to assessing DPI’s direct, dynamic, and market-shaping effects, considering outcomes for individuals, governments, and the private sector. This provides an alternative to traditional cost-benefit approaches, especially in complex or uncertain environments
- It identifies additional factors that influence value creation. The framework integrates contextual, institutional, and political economy considerations — such as trust in data, inclusion gaps, and governance structures — crucial to realising DPI’s full potential.
Policy implications:
- Treat essential digital services as infrastructure. DPI should be governed, funded, and evaluated as a public infrastructure — long-lived, cross-cutting, and foundational to both state capability and economic dynamism.
- Design for value from the start. Value is not automatic. It depends on technical choices, governance, procuring and financing models. Measurement frameworks must reflect this.
- Expand the role of finance ministries. Finance and planning authorities need to move beyond project-based logic and take a strategic role in shaping DPI ecosystems, ensuring coordination, avoiding duplication, and steering systemic investments.
- Build in dynamic measurement beyond efficiency. Governments should move past basic adoption and cost-saving metrics. The framework provides tools to assess systemic value, long-term outcomes, and the trade-offs that shape who benefits — and who may be left behind
