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Does ICT access and usage reduce growth inefficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa?

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Abstract

This paper investigates whether or not the access to and use of ICT can help African countries reduce their growth inefficiencies. Inefficiency is measured, on the one hand, by the gap between a country's growth rate and its own frontier, and on the other hand by the relative position of each country compared to the best achievers. We find that if countries were doing a better job of controlling corruption and improving citizen participation in politics, they would achieve higher growth efficiency performance by using ICT. When countries are compared with each other, considering the growth "frontier" as countries in the sample, then growth differentials are explained primarily by non-ICT factors of growth (human capital, schooling rates, capital growth rates, etc.). The role of ICT factors is secondary. But they contribute to growth to a greater extent for the best achievers (compared to the lowest and middle achievers) because they are better endowed with ICT factors than the others.

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  • Désiré Avom & Gilles Dufrénot & Sylvie Eyeffa, 2023. "Does ICT access and usage reduce growth inefficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa?," AMSE Working Papers 2306, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    • Handle: RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2306
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ICT; African countries; growth inefficiency; frontier; quantiles;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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