nep-ict New Economics Papers
on Information and Communication Technologies
Issue of 2006‒07‒02
three papers chosen by
Walter Frisch
University Vienna

  1. China in the international fragmentation of production: Evidence from the ICT industry By Alessia Amighini
  2. How Businesses Use Information Technology: Insights for Measuring Technology and Productivity By Sang Nguyen; B.K. Atrostic
  3. Heteroskedasticity-Robust Standard Errors for Fixed Effects Panel Data Regression By James H. Stock; Mark W. Watson

  1. By: Alessia Amighini
    Abstract: This paper investigates the position of China in the international fragmentation of production in the ICT industry, the most dynamic and globally dispersed sector in the world economy. The evidence shows that during the 1990s China dramatically increased its market shares in ICT products and now ranks among the top three world exporters. Moreover, China has upgraded from mere assembly of imported inputs to the manufacturing of high-tech intermediate goods. As a result, import dependence has declined and the domestic value added of exports has increased. This supports the hypothesis that industrial upgrading occurred in some tradable sectors through technological learning associated with processing trade. Therefore, a pattern of specialization initially dominated by processing trade could be favourable to a country's long-term development, to the extent that entering at the lower end of high-tech sectors is promotive of catching up in more sophisticated technology-intensive production
    JEL: F02 F14 L63 N60
    Date: 2005–12–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:liu:liucej:20&r=ict
  2. By: Sang Nguyen; B.K. Atrostic
    Abstract: Business use of computers in the United States dates back fifty years. Simply investing in information technology is unlikely to offer a competitive advantage today. Differences in how businesses use that technology should drive differences in economic performance. Our previous research found that one business use – computers linked into networks – is associated with significantly higher labor productivity. In this paper, we extend our analysis with new information about the ways that businesses use their networks. Those data show that businesses conduct a variety of general processes over computer networks, such as order taking, inventory monitoring, and logistics tracking, with considerable heterogeneity among businesses. We find corresponding empirical diversity in the relationship between these on-line processes and productivity, supporting the heterogeneity hypothesis. On-line supply chain activities such as order tracking and logistics have positive and statistically significant productivity impacts, but not processes associated with production, sales, or human resources. The productivity impacts differ by plant age, with higher impacts in new plants. This new information about the ways businesses use information technology yields vital raw material for understanding how using information technology improves economic performance.
    Keywords: Information Technology, E-business Processes, Productivity
    Date: 2006–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:06-15&r=ict
  3. By: James H. Stock; Mark W. Watson
    Abstract: The conventional heteroskedasticity-robust (HR) variance matrix estimator for cross-sectional regression (with or without a degrees of freedom adjustment), applied to the fixed effects estimator for panel data with serially uncorrelated errors, is inconsistent if the number of time periods T is fixed (and greater than two) as the number of entities n increases. We provide a bias-adjusted HR estimator that is (nT)1/2 -consistent under any sequences (n, T) in which n and/or T increase to ∞.The conventional heteroskedasticity-robust (HR) variance matrix estimator for cross-sectional regression (with or without a degrees of freedom adjustment), applied to the fixed effects estimator for panel data with serially uncorrelated errors, is inconsistent if the number of time periods T is fixed (and greater than two) as the number of entities n increases. We provide a bias-adjusted HR estimator that is (nT)1/2 -consistent under any sequences (n, T) in which n and/or T increase to ∞.
    JEL: C23 C12
    Date: 2006–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberte:0323&r=ict

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