Economic growth, telecommunications development and productivity growth of the telecommunications sector: Evidence around the world

This paper studies the relationships between economic growth, telecommunications development and productivity growth of the telecommunications sector in different countries and regions of the world. In particular, this study assesses the impact of mobile telecommunications on economic growth and telecommunications productivity. The results indicate that there is a bidirectional relationship between real gross domestic product (GDP) and telecommunications development (as measured by teledensity) for European and high-income countries. However, when the impact of mobile telecommunications development on economic growth is measured separately, the bi-directional relationship is no longer restricted to European and high-income countries. This study also finds that countries in the upper-middle income group have achieved a higher average total factor productivity (TFP) growth than other countries. Countries with competition and privatization in telecommunications have achieved a higher TFP growth than those without competition and privatization. The diffusion of mobile telecommunications services is found to be a significant factor that has improved the TFP growth of the telecommunications sector in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

[1]  Lawrence M. Seiford,et al.  Recent developments in dea : the mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis , 1990 .

[2]  Matti Pohjola,et al.  Economic growth in the New Economy: evidence from advanced economies , 2002, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[3]  Harold O. Fried,et al.  The measurement of productive efficiency : techniques and applications , 1993 .

[4]  F. Cronin,et al.  Telecommunications infrastructure and economic growth : An analysis of causality , 1991 .

[5]  L. Röller,et al.  Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: a Simultaneous Approach Forschungsschwerpunkt Marktprozeß Und Unter- Nehmensentwicklung Research Area Market Processes and Corporate Development Abstract Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: a Simultaneous Approach * , 1996 .

[6]  C. Kenny.  The Internet and Economic Growth in Less-developed Countries: A Case of Managing Expectations? , 2003 .

[7]  Gary Madden,et al.  Productivity Growth And Market Structure In Telecommunications , 2001 .

[8]  R. Färe,et al.  Productivity changes in Swedish pharamacies 1980–1989: A non-parametric Malmquist approach , 1992 .

[9]  Andrzej Cieślik,et al.  Telecommunications Infrastructure and Regional Economic Development: The Case of Poland , 2004 .

[10]  Harald Gruber,et al.  Competition and Innovation: The Diffusion of Mobile Telecommunications in Central and Eastern Europe , 2000, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[11]  Lawrence M. Seiford,et al.  Data envelopment analysis: The evolution of the state of the art (1978–1995) , 1996 .

[12]  Alice Shiu,et al.  Productivity analysis of the telecommunications sector in China , 2008 .

[13]  L. R. Christensen,et al.  THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF INDEX NUMBERS AND THE MEASUREMENT OF INPUT, OUTPUT, AND PRODUCTIVITY , 1982 .

[14]  Banani Nandi,et al.  Privatization, Telecommunications and Growth in Selected Asian Countries: an Econometric Analysis , 2003 .

[15]  Y. Wolde‐Rufael.  Another look at the Relationship between Telecommunications Investment and Economic Activity in the United States , 2007 .

[16]  R. Färe,et al.  Productivity Developments in Swedish Hospitals: A Malmquist Output Index Approach , 1994 .

[17]  Keun Lee,et al.  Knowledge diffusion, market segmentation and technological catch-up: The case of the telecommunication industry in China , 2005 .

[18]  Chutipong Keesookpuna,et al.  Examining the relationship of communication service utilisation and productivity of labour in the developing country: A case study of Thailand , 2011 .

[19]  M. Arellano,et al.  Symmetrically Normalized Instrumental-Variable Estimation Using Panel Data , 1999 .

[20]  Harald Gruber,et al.  Competition and Innovation: The Diffusion of Mobile Telecommunications in Central and Eastern Europe , 2000, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[21]  Amitava Dutta,et al.  Telecommunications and Economic Activity: An Analysis of Granger Causality , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[22]  Gary Madden,et al.  CEE telecommunications investment and economic growth , 1998 .

[23]  F. Cronin,et al.  Telecommunications and growth: The contribution of telecommunications infrastructure investment to aggregate and sectoral productivity , 1993 .

[24]  Frank Verboven,et al.  The Diffusion of Mobile Telecommunications Services in the European Union , 1999 .

[25]  Yan Peng,et al.  Competition and production efficiency: Telecommunications in OECD countries , 2001, Information Economics and Policy.

[26]  Alice Shiu,et al.  Causal Relationship between Telecommunications and Economic Growth in China and its Regions , 2008 .

[27]  Toshiyuki Sueyoshi,et al.  Stochastic frontier production analysis: Measuring performance of public telecommunications in 24 OECD countries , 1994 .

[28]  K. Kraemer,et al.  : Evidence from , 2022 .

[29]  A. Ros,et al.  Does Ownership or Competition Matter? The Effects of Telecommunications Reform on Network Expansion and Efficiency , 1999 .

[30]  Edwin B. Parker,et al.  Telecommunications infrastructure investment and economic development , 1993 .

[31]  J. Sargan.  THE ESTIMATION OF ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS USING INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLES , 1958 .

[32]  Xiudian Dai.  The Digital Revolution and Governance , 2001 .

[33]  A. Charnes,et al.  Data Envelopment Analysis Theory, Methodology and Applications , 1995 .

[34]  Sumit K. Majumdar,et al.  A matter of connections: OECD telecommunications sector productivity and the role of cellular technology diffusion , 1999 .

[35]  Seung-Jun Kwak,et al.  Information technology and economic development in Korea: a causality study , 2004, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[36]  M. Arellano,et al.  Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations , 1991 .

[37]  Cheng Hsiao,et al.  Analysis of Panel Data , 1987 .