IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/thkase/338432.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Internet on Economic Growth in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Rangkakulnuwat, Poomthan
  • Dunyo, Samuel Kwesi

Abstract

The objective of this study is to estimate the effect of internet on economic growth in Africa as this region has recently been a rapidly growing number of internet usersas well as high economic growth. Using the constructed panel data set of 19 African countries from 2003 to 2014 and employing the Fixed Effect-Iterated Generalized Least Square (FE-IGLS) estimation to correct for autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity, the results show no spurious regression problem. It indicated that internet hasan impact on economic growth when it is complementary with physical capital and technology. Our main finding suggests that African governments should support their children toenter in education higher than secondary level and encourage labor using internet to boost up their knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Rangkakulnuwat, Poomthan & Dunyo, Samuel Kwesi, 2018. "The Impact of Internet on Economic Growth in Africa," Asian Journal of Applied Economics, Kasetsart University, Center for Applied Economics Research, vol. 25(2), December.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:thkase:338432
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.338432
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/338432/files/10.Vol25Issue2_p19-33.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.338432?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan Levin, 2011. "The Economics of Internet Markets," Discussion Papers 10-018, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    2. David E. Altig & Peter Rupert, 1999. "Growth and the internet: surfing to prosperity?," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Sep.
    3. Nicholas Oulton, 2002. "ICT and Productivity Growth in the United Kingdom," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 18(3), pages 363-379.
    4. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    5. Nina Czernich & Oliver Falck & Tobias Kretschmer & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Broadband Infrastructure and Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(552), pages 505-532, May.
    6. Niebel, Thomas, 2018. "ICT and economic growth – Comparing developing, emerging and developed countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 197-211.
    7. Alan B. Krueger, 1993. "How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984–1989," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 33-60.
    8. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    9. Charles Kenny, 2003. "The Internet and Economic Growth in Less-developed Countries: A Case of Managing Expectations? 1," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 99-113.
    10. Koutroumpis, Pantelis, 2009. "The economic impact of broadband on growth: A simultaneous approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 471-485, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mora-Rivera, Jorge & García-Mora, Fernando, 2021. "Internet access and poverty reduction: Evidence from rural and urban Mexico," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2).
    2. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Xu, Lu & Wu, Haitao & Ba, Ning, 2021. "Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Hussain, Ammar & Batool, Irem & Akbar, Minhas & Nazir, Marina, 2021. "Is ICT an enduring driver of economic growth? Evidence from South Asian economies," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(8).
    4. Candelaria, José Alberto, 2015. "A panel data analysis of temporary and permanent effects of fixed broadband penetration over economic growth," 2015 Regional ITS Conference, Los Angeles 2015 146312, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    5. Ahmed S. Alimi & Idris A. Adediran, 2020. "ICT diffusion and the finance–growth nexus: a panel analysis on ECOWAS countries," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Kostas Mavromaras & Jason Qu & Ric Simes & John O'Mahony, 2017. "How Do Digital Technologies Drive Economic Growth?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93, pages 57-69, June.
    7. Kais Saidi & Chebli Mongi, 2018. "The Effect of Education, R&D and ICT on Economic Growth in High Income Countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(2), pages 810-825.
    8. Hernan Galperin & M. Fernanda Viecens, 2017. "Connected for Development? Theory and evidence about the impact of Internet technologies on poverty alleviation," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(3), pages 315-336, May.
    9. Guo-Hua Cao & Jing Zhang, 2021. "Is a sustainable loop of economy and entrepreneurial ecosystem possible? a structural perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7002-7040, May.
    10. Esa Mangeloja, 2004. "Interrelationship of economic growth and regional religious properties," ERSA conference papers ersa04p94, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Parvathi Jayaprakash & R. Radhakrishna Pillai, 2022. "The Role of ICT for Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Analysis," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(1), pages 225-247, February.
    12. Pierre‐Richard Agénor, 2004. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and the Poor: Analytical Issues and Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 351-408, July.
    13. Yi Li, 2020. "Internet Development and Structural Transformation: Evidence from China," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8.
    14. Asplund, Rita, 2004. "A Macroeconomic Perspective on Education and Inequality," Discussion Papers 906, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    15. Espinoza, Héctor & Kling, Gerhard & McGroarty, Frank & O'Mahony, Mary & Ziouvelou, Xenia, 2020. "Estimating the impact of the Internet of Things on productivity in Europe," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116391, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Brian Piper, 2014. "Factor-Specific Productivity," Working Papers 1401, Sam Houston State University, Department of Economics and International Business.
    17. Charalampopoulos, George & Katsianis, Dimitris & Varoutas, Dimitris, 2020. "Investigating the intertwining impact of wholesale access pricing and the commitment to net neutrality principle on European next-generation access networks private investment plans: An options-game a," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    18. Falck, Oliver & Heimisch-Roecker, Alexandra & Wiederhold, Simon, 2021. "Returns to ICT skills," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    19. Carmen Díaz-Roldán & María del Carmen Ramos-Herrera, 2021. "Innovations and ICT: Do They Favour Economic Growth and Environmental Quality?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, March.
    20. Magazzino, Cosimo & Mele, Marco & Morelli, Giovanna & Schneider, Nicolas, 2021. "The nexus between information technology and environmental pollution: Application of a new machine learning algorithm to OECD countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Development;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:thkase:338432. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/darkuth.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.