Do ICT and economic globalisation offer benefits to all nations? Findings from a moments quantile regression

Are all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa equally benefiting from the deployment of Information and Communications Technology and economic globalization? In order to provide an answer to this question, the present study examined the impacts of Information and Communications Technology and economic globalisation on the growth of per capita GDP in 44 countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa region during 2004–2019. This study uses the neoclassical Aggregate Production Function, which incorporates a comprehensive measure of Information and Communications Technology infrastructure and economic globalization. In general, Moments Quantile methods indicate that despite economic globalization and Information and Communications Technology services having statistically significant positive effects on growth, the effects are negligible. A more important finding is that the impact of Information and Communications Technology and economic globalization on growth diminished as per capita GDP increased. Comparatively to countries with relatively higher growth rates in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, countries with lower growth rates will benefit more from expanding their Information and Communications Technology sector and globallyizing their local economies. Accordingly, countries with relatively lower per capita GDP growth in the Sub-Saharan Africa region need to allocate more resources to develop their Information and Communications Technology sector and continue to integrate their local economies with global markets.