ICT and Cross-Country Comparisons: a Proposal of a New Composite Index

This paper focuses on the use and diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a mechanism that may reduce the global divide between rich and poor countries. Our main contribution deals with the importance of counting with accurate time-series data and a precise assessment of the components that define ICT indicators at a national level. Thus, a multiple imputation technique is carried out to estimate ICT missing data under the expectation maximization approach. The resulting dataset allows us to propose a more confident estimation of an ICT composite index based on the notion of national capabilities, the called NaCap Index. A distinctive feature of the NaCap is that it attempts to capture countries’ differences on education and structural elements, both determinant factors to attain positive impacts from the use of ICT. The calculation of the Nacap Index for a broad sample of 170 countries and for a time spam from 1991 to 2003 enable us to do cross-country and time comparisons in a more robust manner.