ICT and E-government as the Sources of Economic Growth in Information Age: Empirical Evidence from South Asian Economies

• Published in: South Asian studies (Lahore, Pakistan) Pakistan), 2019-06, Vol.34 (1), p.227
• Main Authors: Khan, Farzana Naheed, Majeed, M Tariq
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; ger
• Subjects: Communication; Communications technology; Developing countries; Economic development; Economic growth; Economic impact; Economic models; Electronic government; Growth models; Industrialized nations; Information technology; Infrastructure; Internet; LDCs; Policy making; Productivity; Public sector; Public services; Robustness; Technological change; Telecommunications policy
• ISSN: 1026-678X; 2309-4575

ABSTRACT The growing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and e-government has attracted the attention of policy makers who are committed to increase the GDP per capita of a country. Therefore, this study investigates the growth effects of ICT and e-government for a sample of eight South Asian economies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study which examines the relationship between economic growth and ICT with a special emphasis on the role of ICT implementation in public sector (e-government). In particular, we use diverse indicators of ICT to assess the robustness of our findings. Moreover, the study employs instrumental estimation techniques of 2SLS and GMM to deal with the possible problem of endogeneity. The empirical findings of our study indicate that growth effects of ICT as well as e-government are positive and significant for this region. Finally, our study concludes that the South Asia region can greatly benefit from ICT infrastructure in general and its implementation in public sector in particular.