Abstract
Using panel data of 34 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 to 2012, this article investigates the intricate link among ICT diffusion, R&D intensity, and economic growth by employing Panel VAR techniques. The novelty of this paper is to identify the causality channels among R&D, ICTs, and economic growth. Econometric evidence yields that bi-directional causality takes place between ICTs and economic growth. While ICT diffusion leads to a rise in the share of R&D personnel in total employment, it has no causal impact on the share of income devoted to R&D. In this context, empirical results offer that OECD countries need to support the development of ICTs not only to foster economic growth but also to enhance the R&D sector.
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Notes
Guerrieri et al. (2011) have analyzed determinants of ICT investment for ten Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and have concluded that changes in the market regulation, amount of human capital and the expenditure on R&D are known as important determinants of investment on ICTs.
ICTs are largely proxied by the telephone lines per 100 people. But, since the mid 1990s, ICTs have also proxied by the mobile phones per 100 people and the Internet users per 100 people.
Panel unit root tests provided in Table 1 are done in Stata (v. 12).
All system GMM estimates are carried out by the Roodman’s (2006) ‘xtabond2’ command in Stata (v.12).
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Bayraktar Sağlam, B. ICT Diffusion, R&D Intensity, and Economic Growth: a Dynamic Panel Data Approach. J Knowl Econ 9, 636–648 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0353-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0353-0