ICT Exposure and the Level of Wellbeing and Progress: A Cross Country Analysis

Innovations of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have influenced human life through time-saving, diffusion of knowledge, easy communication, and networks, access to information and automation with artificial intelligence. They not only increase productivity, cut-down hardship, improve transparency and governance, build social capital and empower individuals but also raise risks of cyber threats and insecurity of private life, displace labours, encourage sedentary life-style and digitally divide individuals in the society etc. These together do not seem to have unambiguous impacted on the aggregate wellbeing and progress (WPI) of a nation, and thus this paper empirically examined their resultant relationship at the aggregate level. An index of WPI has been prepared to account for the aggregate level of satisfaction derived from six sources, namely economic, human, progress, cultural, environmental wellbeing and happiness. Similarly, an index of ICT exposure has been constructed by combining access to mobile, internet and telephone connections, and internet security. Using a panel database for 67 countries representing all subcontinents during 2000–2014, we find that ICT exposure positively improves the aggregate level of WPI. The net impact is marginally lower in less-developed and developing countries (e.g., Africa, Asia, and the Middle East) than the rest (e.g., Europe and North America).