IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rss/jnljee/v5i3p2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Assessment of the Effect of Telecommunication Investment on Economic Growth in West Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Nazifi Abdullahi Darma
  • Muhammad Ali

Abstract

The study is an empirical assessment of the effect of telecommunication investment on economic growth in West Africa covering the period 2001-2013, and using panel data from various secondary sources. The generalized method of moments (GMM) model, and granger causality tests were applied in the study. The dependent variable is real per capita GDP while the independent variables are telecommunication investment, lag value of real per capita GDP, gross fixed investment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The findings based on the adopted GMM model revealed that telecommunication and foreign direct investments have positive but not significant effect on economic growth while gross fixed investment and lag value of GDP are significantly related to growth. The Granger causality results showed bidirectional relationship between GDP and telecommunication investment while unidirectional causality runs from investment to GDP, and no causality exists between GDP and FDI. The study therefore recommended among others, the need for sustenance and enhancement of liberalization policy to encourage more investment in the telecommunication sector, and strengthening of reform aimed at deregulation and privatization of the sector, and improving access to telecommunication services in the rural areas with sound regulatory institution to enhance business environment and service delivery.

Suggested Citation

  • Nazifi Abdullahi Darma & Muhammad Ali, 2016. "An Assessment of the Effect of Telecommunication Investment on Economic Growth in West Africa," Journal of Empirical Economics, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 153-162.
    • Handle: RePEc:rss:jnljee:v5i3p2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://rassweb.org/admin/pages/ResearchPapers/Paper%202_1497549907.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greenstein, Shane M & Spiller, Pablo T, 1995. "Modern Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Activity: An Empirical Investigation," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 4(4), pages 647-665.
    2. Anusua Datta & Sumit Agarwal, 2004. "Telecommunications and economic growth: a panel data approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(15), pages 1649-1654.
    3. Cronin, Francis J. & Parker, Edwin B. & Colleran, Elisabeth K. & Gold, Mark A., 1991. "Telecommunications infrastructure and economic growth : An analysis of causality," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 529-535, December.
    4. J. Maurice Clark, 1917. "Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand: A Technical Factor in Economic Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(3), pages 217-217.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. António Madureira & Nico Baken & Harry Bouwman, 2011. "Value of digital information networks: a holonic framework," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-30, April.
    2. Bertschek, Irene & Briglauer, Wolfgang & Hüschelrath, Kai & Kauf, Benedikt & Niebel, Thomas, 2016. "The economic impacts of telecommunications networks and broadband internet: A survey," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-056, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Bertschek, Irene & Cerquera, Daniel & Klein, Gordon J., 2011. "More bits - more bucks? Measuring the impact of broadband internet on firm performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-032, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Sang H. Lee & John Levendis & Luis Gutierrez, 2012. "Telecommunications and economic growth: an empirical analysis of sub-Saharan Africa," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 461-469, February.
    5. Pradhan, Rudra P. & Arvin, Mak B. & Norman, Neville R. & Bele, Samadhan K., 2014. "Economic growth and the development of telecommunications infrastructure in the G-20 countries: A panel-VAR approach," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 634-649.
    6. Madureira, António & den Hartog, Frank & Bouwman, Harry & Baken, Nico, 2013. "Empirical validation of Metcalfe’s law: How Internet usage patterns have changed over time," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 246-256.
    7. Olunifesi Adekunle Suraj, 2016. "Managing Telecommunications for Development: An Analysis of Intellectual Capital in Nigerian Telecommunication Industry," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(01), pages 1-30, March.
    8. Madden, Gary & Savage, Scott J., 1999. "Telecommunications productivity, catch-up and innovation," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 65-81, February.
    9. Ajoy Ketan Sarangi & Rudra Prakash Pradhan, 2020. "ICT infrastructure and economic growth: a critical assessment and some policy implications," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 47(4), pages 363-383, December.
    10. Shahiduzzaman, Md. & Alam, Khorshed, 2014. "The long-run impact of Information and Communication Technology on economic output: The case of Australia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 623-633.
    11. Ward, Michael R. & Zheng, Shilin, 2016. "Mobile telecommunications service and economic growth: Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 89-101.
    12. Gómez-Barroso, José Luis & Marbán-Flores, Raquel, 2020. "Telecommunications and economic development – The 20th century: The building of an evidence base," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2).
    13. Ronald Ravinesh Kumar & Peter Josef Stauvermann & Nikeel Kumar & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad, 2019. "Exploring the effect of ICT and tourism on economic growth: a study of Israel," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 221-254, August.
    14. Keesookpuna, Chutipong & Mitomob, Hitoshi, 2012. "A developmental framework for ICT and labour productivity in the developing country: A case study of Thailand," 23rd European Regional ITS Conference, Vienna 2012 60378, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    15. Hong, Jae-pyo, 2017. "Causal relationship between ICT R&D investment and economic growth in Korea," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 70-75.
    16. Shahiduzzaman, Md. & Alam, Khorshed, 2014. "Information technology and its changing roles to economic growth and productivity in Australia," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 125-135.
    17. Madden, Gary & Savage, Scott J., 1998. "CEE telecommunications investment and economic growth," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 173-195, June.
    18. Sawng, Yeong-wha & Kim, Pang-ryong & Park, JiYoung, 2021. "ICT investment and GDP growth: Causality analysis for the case of Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7).
    19. Alice Shiu & Pun-Lee Lam, 2008. "Causal Relationship between Telecommunications and Economic Growth in China and its Regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 705-718.
    20. Bessan Ayédoun, Eudoxie & Ayédoun, Christian, 2020. "Développement des Infrastructures de Télécommunication et Croissance Economique dans les Pays de l’UEMOA: une Analyse de la Causalité sur Données de Panel à partir d’un VECM [Telecommunication Infr," MPRA Paper 104459, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Feb 2021.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rss:jnljee:v5i3p2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Danish Khalil (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.rassweb.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.