Environmental impact of Information Communication Technology: A review of econometric assessment methods, influential mechanism, and influential direction

Abstract

In recent decades, the rapid development of the global society and economy has brought serious environmental problems, such as air pollution, greenhouse effect, and ecosystem degradation, all of which have attracted wide attention. Simultaneously, the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has been on the rise since the 1980s, which stimulates the growth of the economy and has a certain degree of impact on the ecological environment. Accordingly, the scientific community's interest in assessing this impact has grown considerably, and econometric methods are widely used as evaluation tools. However, the research results are often different in different regions, periods, environmental proxies, and ICT. Some studies indicate that the development of ICT is beneficial to environmental improvement, while others state that it is not. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of the methods, mechanisms, and relative policy suggestions of this topic is desiderated. To address this gap, this paper carries out a systematic literature review of the usage of econometric methods in the assessment of the environmental impact of ICT. Among the 472 articles retrieved from scientific literature databases, 46 met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in detail. This study aims to provide scholars with a mental picture of the current state of scientific research, identify the factors that influence the direction of ICT's impact on the environment, and enable future researchers to use more reliable and accurate estimation methods. The methods used in selected articles were divided into two main groups (i.e., time series models and panel data models), and panel data models were further subdivided into five categories. The detailed flow of these methods is summarized, and new advanced pre-test methods and estimators are highlighted. Furthermore, the analysis also indicates that among all the countries and regions involved in the selected articles, there is a non-strict inverted U-shaped curve between the level of socio-economic development and the direction of the impact of ICT on the environment. Finally, current research challenges are discussed, and potential directions for future research on this topic are also projected.