ICT, DEVELOPMENT, AND POVERTY REDUCTION

Still more online resources on the topics of our discussion:

Are Poor Countries Losing the Information Revolution?
infoDev description: “Are Information and Communications Technologies contributing to widening the gap between poor and rich countries? Are these countries converging in terms of ICT outputs and inputs? Are ICTs helping to lower the gap between the poor and the rich within economies? What is the relationship between the gap in GDP per capita and the gap in ICTs? Francisco Rodriguez and Ernie Wilson attempt to answer these questions with summary cross-country indicators of ICTs. Their main indicator is an Index of Technological Progress (ITP) built through principal components analysis using data on several indicators of ICT progress. They find that the gaps in ICT are increasing, but that there are a number of policies and institutional changes that can help poor countries catch up with the rich in terms of technology.” May, 2000. (MS Word format 349K) Also available in PDF format.
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/library/papers/ewilson/apxc.pdf

This is a very nice set of publications by one of my mentors and his colleagues:

National IT Policy Publications
This website provides papers from a project of the Center for Research on Information Technology in Organizations (CRITO) at the University of California, Irvine.

including:

Information Technology in Southeast Asia: Engine of Growth or Digital Divide?
This paper reviews evidence on the introduction of ICTs utilizing econometric techniques, and concludes that while there is evidence the ICTs do increase firm and country productivity, Asian countries have been relatively slow to adopt the technology, and have benefited less than some others. By Kenneth Kraemer and Jason Dedrick, 2002. (PDF, 26 pages.)

IT and Productivity: Evidence from Country-Level Data
Abstract: "This paper studies a key driver of the demand for the products and services of the global IT industry --- returns from IT investments. We estimate an inter-country production function relating IT and non-IT inputs to GDP output, on panel data from 36 countries over 1985-1993. We find significant differences between developed and developing countries with respect to their structure of returns from capital investments. For the developed countries in the sample, returns to IT capital investments are estimated to be positive and significant, while returns to non-IT capital investments are not commensurate with relative factor shares. The situation is reversed for the developing countries subsample, where returns to non-IT capital are quite substantial, but those from IT capital investments are not statistically significant. We estimate output growth contributions of IT and non-IT capital and discuss the contrasting policy implications for capital investment by developed and developing economies." By Sanjeev Dewan and Kenneth L. Kraemer, 1998. (PDF, 33 pages.)

International Dimensions of the Productivity Paradox
From the final paragraph of the paper: “While the slowdown is potentially explained by several different factors (for example, the overstatement of inflation), our results clearly indicate that IT is not to be blamed for the slowdown. On the contrary, IT investments are contributing to output and productivity at a rate that is disproportionate to their factor share in production. For the countries in our sample, IT capital constitutes 1/20 of GDP, but accounts for one-third to one-half of growth in output (and productivity). As IT continues to displace labor, factory, and equipment throughout the production system (from suppliers to producers to customers), its share of the total inputs to the economy will continue to increase. As this occurs, and IT investments approach 10–15% of GDP, the economic contributions
of IT will be more visible and the productivity issue will no longer be a matter of debate.” By Sanjeev Dewan and Kenneth Kraemer, 1999. (PDF, 7 pages.)

And a related paper from another part of the CRITO website:

"Japanese Innovation Reform in the Light of Past Dialogue: Conceptions of Convergence as Perspectives for Comparative System Assessment."
Abstract: "As the Japanese economy continues on its sluggish growth trajectory, economists in and out of Japan are pointing to the Japanese innovation system as a drag on growth. In particular, they argue that, as opposed to the innovation-based growth Japan experienced in the postwar period, the engine of innovation today requires not only substantial sector-by-sector investments but an institutional matrix supportive of active linkages between these sectors as well. This perspective follows directly from observations of a large university role in the American economy via patenting and licensure, firm formation, academic consultancy, and research contracting. There are fundamental differences between the university-industry linkage policy models in Japan and the United States, however. The different historical trajectories and resulting disparate policy frameworks in the two countries pose challenges to mutual learning in the innovation policy formulation process. This research addresses the challenge by drawing on the experience of industry and trade dialogues held over the past two decades under the auspices of the U.S. National Research Council and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The lessons garnered through this experience enable a more robust assessment of university-industry linkage systems in support of policy formulation in both countries." By Kenneth Pechter, 2001. (PDF, 93 pages.)