Abstract

This study studies the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) availability on economic growth in different countries and regions of the world. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between growth rate of real GDP per capita and ICT access index (as measured by the fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants, mobile cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, international internet bandwidth per Internet user, proportion of households with a computer and proportion of households with Internet access at home) for 142 countries over the world. This study also finds that ICT access in the high income group has a higher effect on economic growth than other groups. This implies that if these countries seek to enhance their economic growth, they need to implement specific policies that facilitate ICT access.

Keywords:

Economic growth, GMM, ICT, information and communication technology access,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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