IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iepoli/v41y2017icp81-87.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information and communications technology (ICT) and services trade

Author

Listed:
  • Nath, Hiranya K.
  • Liu, Lirong

Abstract

Using panel data for 49 countries from 2000 to 2013, this paper empirically examines the impacts of ICT development on exports, imports, and total trade of ten service items. Unlike most previous studies, seven different ICT variables are used to construct a comprehensive ICT development index (IDI) that captures the access, use, and skill aspects of the technology. The results indicate that ICT development has significant positive contributions to the growth of international trade in seven (of ten) service items. For two of these – financial and other business services – both exports and imports are significantly impacted by ICT. It also has significant positive effects only on exports of transportation services and only on imports of insurance services, royalty and license fees, telecommunication services, and travel. Five of these services are ICT-enabled: this technology plays an important role in the production and delivery of these services. When we consider total (exports plus imports) trade, ICT has significant positive effects on six of the items, including financial services, insurance services, other business services, royalty and license fees, transportation and travel. Among the three aspects, ICT use is found to be more important than access and skills for trade in a number of services. These results provide interesting policy insights for ICT development and growth of services trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Nath, Hiranya K. & Liu, Lirong, 2017. "Information and communications technology (ICT) and services trade," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 81-87.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:41:y:2017:i:c:p:81-87
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2017.06.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167624516300646
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2017.06.003?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald, 2008. "Information and communications technology as a general purpose technology: evidence from U.S. industry data," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 1-15.
    2. Lirong Liu & Hiranya K. Nath, 2013. "Information and Communications Technology and Trade in Emerging Market Economies," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 67-87, November.
    3. Fink, Carsten & Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina, 2005. "Assessing the impact of communication costs on international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 428-445, December.
    4. Choi, Changkyu, 2010. "The effect of the Internet on service trade," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 102-104, November.
    5. Freund, Caroline L. & Weinhold, Diana, 2004. "The effect of the Internet on international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 171-189, January.
    6. repec:bla:germec:v:8:y:2007:i::p:146-173 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Uday M. Apte & Hiranya K. Nath, 2012. "U.S. Trade In Information-Intensive Services," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Vandana Mangal & Uday Karmarkar (ed.), The UCLA Anderson Business and Information Technologies (BIT) Project A Global Study of Business Practice (2012), chapter 6, pages 117-144, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Hiranya K. Nath & Lirong Liu, 2012. "Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Trade in Emerging Market Economies," Working Papers 1205, Sam Houston State University, Department of Economics and International Business.
    9. Caroline Freund & Diana Weinhold, 2002. "The Internet and International Trade in Services," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 236-240, May.
    10. Svaleryd, Helena & Vlachos, Jonas, 2005. "Financial markets, the pattern of industrial specialization and comparative advantage: Evidence from OECD countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 113-144, January.
    11. George R. G. Clarke & Scott J. Wallsten, 2006. "Has the Internet Increased Trade? Developed and Developing Country Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 465-484, July.
    12. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1182 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Visser, Robin, 2019. "The effect of the internet on the margins of trade," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 41-54.
    2. Abeliansky, Ana L. & Hilbert, Martin, 2017. "Digital technology and international trade: Is it the quantity of subscriptions or the quality of data speed that matters?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 35-48.
    3. Burcu Ozcan, 2018. "Information and communications technology (ICT) and international trade: evidence from Turkey," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(1), pages 93-113, April.
    4. Hildegunn K. Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet, 2017. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Trade Flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1155-1183, June.
    5. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Internet, Participation in International Trade, and Tax Revenue Instability," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 37(2), pages 267-315.
    6. Zhongwei Xing, 2018. "The impacts of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and E-commerce on bilateral trade flows," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 565-586, July.
    7. Sun, Meng, 2021. "The Internet and SME Participation in Exports," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    8. Jie Duan & Zengxi Hu, 2024. "Internet linkage and international trade: From the perspective of risk alleviation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 3551-3577, August.
    9. Carballo, Jerónimo & Rodriguez Chatruc, Marisol & Salas Santa, Catalina & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2022. "Online business platforms and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Joël Cariolle & Michele Imbruno & Jaime de Melo, 2020. "Bilateral digital connectivity and firm participation in export markets," Working Papers hal-03182438, HAL.
    11. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm & Iyer, Harish, 2018. "Does bridging the Internet Access Divide contribute to enhancing countries' integration into the global trade in services markets?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 61-77.
    12. Fernandes, Ana M. & Mattoo, Aaditya & Nguyen, Huy & Schiffbauer, Marc, 2019. "The internet and Chinese exports in the pre-ali baba era," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 57-76.
    13. Emine Elçin Köten, 2024. "The impact of internet platform usage on firms' exports: New evidence for Turkish firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 1557-1614, April.
    14. Jerónimo Carballo & Alejandro Graziano & Georg Schaur & Christian Volpe Martincus, 2016. "The Border Labyrinth: Information Technologies and Trade in the Presence of Multiple Agencies," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 94637, Inter-American Development Bank.
    15. Shuzhong Ma & Zengxi Hu, 2023. "Internet penetration and multi‐product exporters: Firm‐level evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1444-1470, May.
    16. Joël Cariolle & Maelan Le Goff & Olicier Santoni, 2019. "Digital vulnerability and performance of firms in developing countries," Working papers 709, Banque de France.
    17. Herman, Peter R. & Oliver, Sarah, 2023. "Trade, policy, and economic development in the digital economy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    18. Jonathan Timmis, 2013. "Internet Adoption and Firm Exports in Developing Economies," Discussion Papers 2013-05, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    19. Carballo, Jerónimo & Graziano, Alejandro & Schaur, Georg & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2016. "The Border Labyrinth: Information Technologies and Trade in the Presence of Multiple Agencies," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7691, Inter-American Development Bank.
    20. Adusei Poku, Eugene & Broni-Pinkrah, Samuel & Effah Nyamekye, Gabriel, 2016. "Modelling and assessment of the effect of income on service exports in Ghana," MPRA Paper 72312, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information and communications technology (ICT); Services exports; Services imports; Service trade; ICT-enabled services;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

    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:eee:iepoli:v:41:y:2017:i:c:p:81-87. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505549 .

    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.