IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa04p307.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The North-South Digital Divide in Information and Communication Technologies Development: the Case for Spanish Regions

Author

Listed:
  • Fernando Lera
  • Margarita Billón

Abstract

The "New Economy" is a concept that is associated with the growth of the US economy in the second half of the nineties, which were characterised by high growth in GDP. In attempt to find an explanation for these events, research to date cites the main determinant to be the marked rise in labour productivity that came about as a result of the impact of Information and Communication Technologies, particularly the Internet. The purpose of the present study is to examine the phenomenon that has arisen around this "new or digital economy" and the development of the Internet from the macro and microeconomic viewpoint and then show how the Spanish regions lag behind the rest of Europe in this respect. Firstly, we present international evidences of the positive impact of ICT in terms of labour and multifactorial productivity in national economies, industrial sectors and firms. These evidences are contrasted with some spanish studies. Secondly, we measure the importance of ICT in Europe. We base our method on a set of indicators, classified into three areas: infrastructure and size of sector, use of Internet and electronic commerce, and social and economic effects. We then examine the Spanish situation electronic commerce, and social and economic effects. We then examine the Spanish situation within the context of the rest of Europe, and discover a major north-south digital divide affecting certain areas, along with major interregional disparities. As far as Internet development is concerned, there are major regional differences. The paper points out the fact that Spain registers the highest standard deviation, in other words, the greatest regional differences, which, reflected in terms of different synthetic/composite indicators. This lag in progress contrasts with Spain's public policies aimed at promoting the Internet. Nevertheless, Internet development can provide the opportunity to close this gap within the EU. It may, however, increase discrepancies between the regions, by giving regions with higher per capita income an advantage in terms of productivity and competitiveness, unless a determined effort is made to implement actions aimed at developing the information society.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Lera & Margarita Billón, 2004. "The North-South Digital Divide in Information and Communication Technologies Development: the Case for Spanish Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa04p307, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa04/PDF/307.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2002. "Information Technology, Workplace Organization, and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 339-376.
    2. Peter Sutherland, 2003. "The Outlook for World Trade," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 4(3), pages 27-34, July.
    3. Dale W. Jorgenson & Mun S. Ho & Kevin J. Stiroh, 2006. "Projecting Productivity Growth: Lessons from the US Growth Resurgence," Chapters, in: Dennis W. Jansen (ed.), The New Economy and Beyond, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Ark, Bart van & Inklaar, Robert & McGuckin, Robert, 2002. ""Changing gear" : productivity, ICT and services: Europe and the United States," GGDC Research Memorandum 200260, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    5. Dale W. Jorgenson, 2001. "Information Technology and the U.S. Economy," Higher School of Economics Economic Journal Экономический журнал Высшей школы экономики, CyberLeninka;Федеральное государственное автономное образовательное учреждение высшего образования «Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики», vol. 5(1), pages 3-34.
    6. Bart van Ark & Robert Inklaar & Robert H. McGuckin, 2002. "'Changing Gear' - Productivity, ICT and Services Industries: Europe and the United States," Economics Program Working Papers 02-02, The Conference Board, Economics Program.
    7. Oliner, Stephen D. & Sichel, Daniel E., 2003. "Information technology and productivity: where are we now and where are we going?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 477-503, July.
    8. Dale W. Jorgenson, 2007. "Information Technology and the G7 Economies," NBER Chapters, in: Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches, pages 325-350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Stefano Scarpetta & Thierry Tressel, 2002. "Productivity and Convergence in a Panel of OECD Industries: Do Regulations and Institutions Matter?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 342, OECD Publishing.
    10. Kevin J. Stiroh, 2002. "Information Technology and the U.S. Productivity Revival: What Do the Industry Data Say?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1559-1576, December.
    11. repec:dgr:rugggd:200260 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Dirk Pilat & Franck Lee, 2001. "Productivity Growth in ICT-producing and ICT-using Industries: A Source of Growth Differentials in the OECD?," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2001/4, OECD Publishing.
    13. Bart van Ark, 2001. "The Renewal of the Old Economy: An International Comparative Perspective," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2001/5, OECD Publishing.
    14. Alessandra Colecchia & Paul Schreyer, 2003. "The contribution of information and communication technologies to economic growth in nine OECD countries," OECD Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2002(1), pages 153-171.
    15. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin Hitt, 1996. "Paradox Lost? Firm-Level Evidence on the Returns to Information Systems Spending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 541-558, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Lucia Piscitello & Cristina Rossi, 2007. "Explaining the Territorial Adoption of New Technologies: A Spatial Econometric Approach," Chapters, in: Koen Frenken (ed.), Applied Evolutionary Economics and Economic Geography, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. BEN YOUSSEF, Adel & METHAMEM, Raouchen & M'HENNI, Hatem, 2009. "Disparités régionales et diffusion des TIC en Tunisie [Regional disparities and ICTs diffusion in Tunisia]," MPRA Paper 17938, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.
    3. Guido De Blasio, 2008. "Urban–Rural Differences in Internet Usage, e‐Commerce, and e‐Banking: Evidence from Italy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 341-367, June.

    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. Federico Biagi, 2013. "ICT and Productivity: A Review of the Literature," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2013-09, Joint Research Centre.
    2. Dale W. Jorgenson & Mun S. Ho & Kevin J. Stiroh, 2008. "A Retrospective Look at the U.S. Productivity Growth Resurgence," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 3-24, Winter.
    3. Oliner, Stephen D. & Sichel, Daniel E. & Stiroh, Kevin J., 2008. "Explaining a productive decade," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 633-673.
    4. Francesco Daveri, 2002. "The New Economy in Europe, 1992--2001," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 18(3), pages 345-362.
    5. Bart van Ark & Robert Inklaar & Robert H. McGuckin, 2003. "The Contribution of ICT-Producing and ICT-Using Industries to Productivity Growth: A Comparison of Canada, Europe and the United States," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 6, pages 56-63, Spring.
    6. Cette, Gilbert & Mairesse, Jacques & Kocoglu, Yusuf, 2005. "ICT diffusion and potential output growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 231-234, May.
    7. Belorgey, Nicolas & Lecat, Remy & Maury, Tristan-Pierre, 2006. "Determinants of productivity per employee: An empirical estimation using panel data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 153-157, May.
    8. Laura Abramovsky & Rachel Griffith, 2009. "ICT, corporate restructuring and productivity," IFS Working Papers W09/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Elsadig Musa Ahmed, 2017. "ICT and Human Capital Spillover Effects in Achieving Sustainable East Asian Knowledge-Based Economies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(3), pages 1086-1112, September.
    10. Hélène Baudchon, 2002. "The Aftermath of the "New Economy" Bust : a Case Study of Five OECD Countries," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2002-08, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    11. Alan Hughes & Michael S Scott Morton, 2005. "ICT and productivity growth - the paradox resolved?," Working Papers wp316, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    12. Espinoza, Héctor & Kling, Gerhard & McGroarty, Frank & O'Mahony, Mary & Ziouvelou, Xenia, 2020. "Estimating the impact of the Internet of Things on productivity in Europe," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116391, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Harald Edquist & Magnus Henrekson, 2006. "Technological Breakthroughs and Productivity Growth," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, pages 1-53, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    14. Ark, Bart van, 2002. "ICT investments and growth accounts for the European Union," GGDC Research Memorandum 200256, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    15. repec:dgr:rugggd:200256 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Pierre-Alain Muet, 2006. "Impacts économiques de la révolution numérique," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(3), pages 347-375.
    17. Gilbert Cette & Christian Pfister, 2004. "Challenges of the “New Economy” for Monetary Policy," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 8, pages 27-36, Spring.
    18. Ketteni, Elena & Mamuneas, Theofanis & Stengos, Thanasis, 2011. "The Effect Of Information Technology And Human Capital On Economic Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(5), pages 595-615, November.
    19. Gilbert Cette & Jacques Mairesse & Yusuf Kocoglu, 2004. "Diffusion des TIC et croissance potentielle," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 114(1), pages 77-97.
    20. Frank Nagle, 2019. "Open Source Software and Firm Productivity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1191-1215, March.
    21. van der Wiel, Henry & van Leeuwen, George & Hempell, Thomas, 2004. "ICT, Innovation and Business Performance in Services: Evidence for Germany and the Netherlands," ZEW Discussion Papers 04-06, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p307. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.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.