IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v40y2016i5p485-501.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information and communication technologies and their impact in the economic growth of Latin America, 1990–2013

Author

Listed:
  • Hofman, André
  • Aravena, Claudio
  • Aliaga, Vianka

Abstract

This article examines the contribution of information and communications technologies (ICT) to economic growth and productivity in Latin America in the period 1990–2013. Increased ICT investment explains an important part of the acceleration of economic growth in the United States since 1995. An objective of this study is to verify if the same happened in Latin America. The analysis is presented at two levels. First, the study takes into account the aggregate level of the economy, for a set of 18 countries in the region. Second, it analyzes the relationship of ICT, economic growth and productivity by sector in five countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, which are part of a project on sectoral growth analysis using a growth accounting approach (LA-KLEMS project). The decomposition of the factors that determine the gap in GDP per capita with the US showed that improvements in the labor factor have helped to reduce the gap in GDP per capita relative to the US and conversely poor labor productivity has contributed negatively. The main cause that the labor productivity gap remains is the widening gap in ICT capital that counteracts improvements in human capital in Latin America. The role of ICT has been very low, representing less than one sixth of the total capital contribution. The analysis by economic activity, using the LA-KLEMS data base for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, shows that the contribution of capital is the main source of growth in the fastest growing industry, the transportation industry and communications, and went hand in hand with high investment especially in ICT.

Suggested Citation

  • Hofman, André & Aravena, Claudio & Aliaga, Vianka, 2016. "Information and communication technologies and their impact in the economic growth of Latin America, 1990–2013," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 485-501.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:40:y:2016:i:5:p:485-501
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2016.02.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596116000379
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2016.02.002?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. -, 2013. "The digital economy for structural change and equality," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 35954 edited by Eclac.
    2. -, 2011. "ICT in Latin America: a microdata analysis," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 35290, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    3. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    4. Dale W. Jorgenson & Khuong Vu, 2005. "Information Technology and the World Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(4), pages 631-650, December.
    5. Vergara, Sebastián & Rovira, Sebastián & Balboni, Mariana, 2011. "ICT in Latin America: A Microdata Analysis," MPRA Paper 34598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Diego Restuccia, 2013. "The Latin American Development Problem: An Interpretation," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 69-108.
    7. Rodrigo Vergara & Rosario Rivero, 2006. "Productividad Sectorial en Chile: 1986-2001," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 43(127), pages 143-168.
    8. Timmer,Marcel P. & Inklaar,Robert & O'Mahony,Mary & Ark,Bart van, 2013. "Economic Growth in Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107412446, May.
    9. Hausmann, Ricardo & Hidalgo, Cesar, 2014. "The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping Paths to Prosperity," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262525429, December.
    10. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2013. "Misallocation and productivity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, January.
    11. D. W. Jorgenson & Z. Griliches, 1967. "The Explanation of Productivity Change," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 34(3), pages 249-283.
    12. Dale Jorgenson & Eric Yip, 2001. "Whatever Happened to Productivity Growth?," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 509-540, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Alessandra Colecchia & Paul Schreyer, 2001. "ICT Investment and Economic Growth in the 1990s: Is the United States a Unique Case? A Comparative Study of Nine OECD Countries," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2001/7, OECD Publishing.
    14. Marcel P. Timmer & Gaaitzen J. de Vries, 2009. "Structural change and growth accelerations in Asia and Latin America: a new sectoral data set," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 3(2), pages 165-190, June.
    15. Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer & Bart van Ark, 2008. "Market services productivity across Europe and the US [‘Distance to Frontier, Selection, and Economic Growth’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 23(53), pages 140-194.
    16. Dale W. Jorgenson & Khuong Vu, 2005. "Information Technology and the World Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(4), pages 631-650, December.
    17. Mario Cimoli & André A. Hofman & Nanno Mulder (ed.), 2010. "Innovation and Economic Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13996.
    18. Abramovitz, Moses, 1993. "The Search for the Sources of Growth: Areas of Ignorance, Old and New," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(2), pages 217-243, June.
    19. Gaaitzen J. De Vries & Nanno Mulder & Mariela Dal Borgo & Andre A. Hofman, 2010. "ICT Investment in Latin America: Does it Matter for Economic Growth?," Chapters, in: Mario Cimoli & André A. Hofman & Nanno Mulder (ed.), Innovation and Economic Development, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    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. Claudio Aravena F. & André A. Hofman & Luis Eduardo Escobar F., 2018. "Fuentes del crecimiento económico y la productividad en América Latina y el Caribe, 1990-2013," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 21(1), pages 034-066, April.
    2. Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2012. "Productivity Convergence Across Industries and Countries: The Importance of Theory-based Measurement," Chapters, in: Matilde Mas & Robert Stehrer (ed.), Industrial Productivity in Europe, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. K L Krishna & Abdul A Erumban & Bishwanath Goldar & Deb Kusum Das & Suresh Chand Aggarwal & Pilu Chandra Das, 2018. "ICT investment and economic growth in India: An industry perspective," Working papers 284, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    4. Alessandro Nuvolari & Emanuele Russo, 2019. "Technical progress and structural change: a long-term view," LEM Papers Series 2019/17, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    5. Stefania Villa, 2005. "Determinants of growth in Italy. A time series analysis," Quaderni DSEMS 24-2005, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    6. Niebel, Thomas, 2018. "ICT and economic growth – Comparing developing, emerging and developed countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 197-211.
    7. Erumban, Abdul A. & Das, Deb Kusum, 2016. "Information and communication technology and economic growth in India," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 412-431.
    8. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-109 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Gilbert Cette & Yusuf Kocoglu & Jacques Mairesse, 2009. "Productivity Growth and Levels in France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States in the Twentieth Century," NBER Working Papers 15577, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Hong, Junjie & Shi, Fangyuan & Zheng, Yuhan, 2023. "Does network infrastructure construction reduce energy intensity? Based on the “Broadband China” strategy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    11. Iryna Kalenyuk & Liudmyla Tsymbal, 2021. "Assessment of the intellectual component in economic development," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 4793-4816, June.
    12. Wang, Lan-Hsun & Liao, Shu-Yi & Huang, Mao-Lung, 2022. "The growth effects of knowledge-based technological change on Taiwan’s industry: A comparison of R&D and education level," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 525-545.
    13. Carol Corrado & Jonathan Haskel & Cecilia Jona-Lasinio, 2017. "Knowledge Spillovers, ICT and Productivity Growth," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(4), pages 592-618, August.
    14. Huifang E & Shuangjie Li & Liming Wang & Huidan Xue, 2023. "The Impact of ICT Capital Services on Economic Growth and Energy Efficiency in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-21, May.
    15. Vu, Khuong M & Asongu, Simplice, 2020. "Backwardness advantage and economic growth in the information age: A cross-country empirical study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    16. Matthias Figo & Peter Mayerhofer, 2015. "Strukturwandel und regionales Wachstum - wissensintensive Unternehmensdienste als Wachstumsmotor?," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 145, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    17. Voskoboynikov, Ilya B., 2012. "New measures of output, labour and capital in industries of the Russian economy," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-123, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    18. K L Krishna & Deb Kusum Das & Abdul A Erumban & Suresh Aggarwal & Pilu Chandra Das, 2016. "Productivity Dynamics In India’S Service Sector: An Industry-Level Perspective," Working papers 261, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    19. Safdar Ullah Khan, 2006. "Macro Determeinants of Total Factor Productivity in Pakistan," SBP Working Paper Series 10, State Bank of Pakistan, Research Department.
    20. Jacques Simon Song & Georges Ngnouwal Eloundou & Fabrice Bitoto Ewolo & Blaise Ondoua Beyene, 2024. "Does Social Media Contribute to Economic Growth?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 8349-8389, June.
    21. Gilbert Cette & Anne Epaulard & Pauline Givord, 2008. "Croissance de la productivité : le rôle des institutions et de la politique économique," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 419(1), pages 3-10.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:telpol:v:40:y:2016:i:5:p:485-501. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    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.