Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Productivity of South Asian Economies

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) is considered as an important factor of production, it plays a pivotal role in enhancing the productivity of others factor of production. The main objective of this paper is to find the impact of information and communication technology on the productivity of emerging economies of South Asia. We use GDP per worker as a proxy for productivity and ICT- capital per worker is used to capture the impact of information and communication technologies. We apply OLS and GMM methods of estimation in a panel setting. The results indicate that information and communication technology is one of the main determinants of the variation in output per worker across the four South Asian economies during the last two and half decades (1990-2014). The physical capital which not relates to information technology is also important determinants of productivity growth. The study confirms that ICT is playing important role in South Asia. Therefore, the importance of information technology in economic growth is a global phenomenon