IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v11y2023i11p270-d1272110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on International Trade: The Case of MENA Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Kamel Touati

    (Department of Business Administration, College of Administrative Science, Najran University, Najran 1988, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ahmed Aljazea

    (Department of Business Administration, College of Administrative Science, Najran University, Najran 1988, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Given the importance of international trade, we empirically investigate the impact of information and communication technologies on the exports, imports, and total trade of five service items by using a panel data for 19 MENA countries from 2005 to 2019. Unlike most previous studies, we use the Information and Communication Technologies Development Index, which is a composite index that combines 11 indicators that include the access, use, and skill aspects of the technology. The results are as follows: the Information and Communication Technologies Development Index has a negative and statistically significant effect on exports of information technology services, and a positive and statistically significant effect on imports and total trade in financial services. Furthermore, we found also that the Information and Communication Technologies access sub-index has a significant effect on total trade in information technology services and transport. For the Information and Communication Technologies use sub-index, its effect on imports of travel services and exports of both travel and information technology services is significant. It also has a significant positive effect on total trade in travel and information technology services. As for the Information and Communication Technologies skills sub-index, the results show that it has significant positive effects on total trade in IT services and travel, and a negative significant effect on transport. These results provide interesting policy insights for information and communication technologies development and the growth of services trade for policy makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kamel Touati & Ahmed Aljazea, 2023. "The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on International Trade: The Case of MENA Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:11:y:2023:i:11:p:270-:d:1272110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/11/11/270/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/11/11/270/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Uday M. Apte & Richard O. Mason, 1995. "Global Disaggregation of Information-Intensive Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(7), pages 1250-1262, July.
    2. Duch-Brown, Néstor & Grzybowski, Lukasz & Romahn, André & Verboven, Frank, 2017. "The impact of online sales on consumers and firms. Evidence from consumer electronics," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 30-62.
    3. David H. Romer & Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "Does Trade Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 379-399, June.
    4. Choi, Changkyu, 2010. "The effect of the Internet on service trade," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 102-104, November.
    5. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Barbero, Javier & Rodriguez-Crespo, Ernesto, 2021. "ICTs quality and quantity and the margins of trade," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1).
    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. Das, Satya P. & Sant’Anna, Vinicios P., 2023. "Determinants of bilateral trade in manufacturing and services: A unified approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    2. Jinsuk Yang & Qing Hao & Mahmut Yaşar, 2023. "Institutional investors and cross‐border mergers and acquisitions: The 2000–2018 period," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 553-583, September.
    3. Vieira, Flávio & MacDonald, Ronald & Damasceno, Aderbal, 2012. "The role of institutions in cross-section income and panel data growth models: A deeper investigation on the weakness and proliferation of instruments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 127-140.
    4. Ramon Moreno, 2001. "Pegging and stabilization policy in developing countries," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 17-29.
    5. Donna, Javier D. & Pereira, Pedro & Trindade, Andre & Yoshida, Renan C., 2020. "Direct-to-Consumer Sales by Manufacturers and Bargaining," MPRA Paper 105773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Iamsiraroj, Sasi, 2016. "The foreign direct investment–economic growth nexus," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 116-133.
    7. Lederman, Daniel & Saenz, Laura, 2005. "Innovation and development around the world, 1960-2000," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3774, The World Bank.
    8. Tovar, Jorge, 2012. "Consumers’ Welfare and Trade Liberalization: Evidence from the Car Industry in Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 808-820.
    9. Badinger, Harald & Egger, Peter, 2013. "Spacey Parents and Spacey Hosts in FDI," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 154, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    10. Vlatka Bilas & Mile Bosnjak, 2015. "Revealed Comparative Advantage And Merchandise Exports: The Case Of Merchandise Trade Between Croatia And The Rest Of The European Union Member Countries," Economic Thought and Practice, Department of Economics and Business, University of Dubrovnik, vol. 24(1), pages 29-47, june.
    11. Löschel, Andreas & Pothen, Frank & Schymura, Michael, 2015. "Peeling the onion: Analyzing aggregate, national and sectoral energy intensity in the European Union," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 63-75.
    12. Huy Quang Doan, 2019. "Trade, Institutional Quality and Income: Empirical Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, May.
    13. Salman Haider & Aadil Ahmad Ganaie & Bandi Kamaiah, 2019. "Total Factor Productivity and Openness in Indian Economy: 1970–2011," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 54(1), pages 46-57, February.
    14. Manuel Funke & Moritz Schularick & Christoph Trebesch, 2023. "Populist Leaders and the Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(12), pages 3249-3288, December.
    15. Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(1), pages 60-95, March.
    16. 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.
    17. Ola Olsson, 2005. "Geography and institutions: Plausible and implausible linkages," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 167-194, December.
    18. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Langlotz, Sarah, 2019. "The effects of foreign aid on refugee flows," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 127-147.
    19. Ahmet Faruk AYSAN & Mustapha Kamel NABLI & Marie‐Ange VÉGANZONÈS‐VAROUDAKIS, 2007. "Governance Institutions And Private Investment: An Application To The Middle East And North Africa," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 45(3), pages 339-377, September.
    20. Shi, Wei & Tang, Yinuo, 2015. "Cultural similarity as in-group favoritism: The impact of religious and ethnic similarities on alliance formation and announcement returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 32-46.

    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:gam:jecomi:v:11:y:2023:i:11:p:270-:d:1272110. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.