| By: |
Meijers, Huub (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: |
This paper reports the findings of an empirical study on the external effects
of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on economic growth and
productivity at an aggregate level. It focuses on possible network effects and
spillovers emerging as externalities from investments in ICT. The existence of
externalities is well described in theoretical work however empirical evidence
is scarce. By using time series at the macro level for a panel of 15 countries
I find positive externalities for investments in IT software and in
telecommunication equipment, but not for IT hardware. The analysis, which
accounts for cyclical effects and also takes external effects from non-ICT
factors into account, points at considerable lags between the time of
investing in these technologies and the time at which the externalities arise.
Taking these externality effects into account, the paper shows that the impact
of ICT on productivity is almost twice as high as compared to a model that
does not include such effects. |
| Keywords: |
Productivity, Network Effects, Spillovers, Information and Communication Technologies, Total Factor Productivity |
| JEL: |
D24 D85 O11 O47 |
| Date: |
2007 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2007021&r=ict |