Does ICT Participate in Economic Convergence among Asian Countries: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Data Model
Bilal Mehmooda b, Parvez Azimc d
- aDepartment of Economics , Government College University , Lahore , Pakistan
- bDepartment of Economics, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan
- cDepartment of Economics , Government College University , Faisalabad , Pakistan
- dDepartment of Economics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan
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Abstract
Conventional Convergence models usually oversee the role of information and communications technology (ICT) as a determinant of convergence.This paper introduces ICT as a factor contributing towards economic convergence in Asian countries.In addition to ICT, other factors like demographic traits, level of human development and electricity consumption are used as regressors.System GMM technique is used to estimate convergence regression for selected Asian countries for data of time span 2001-2010.Support for ICT-augmented convergence is found, implying that ICT has the tendency to participate in convergence process.Suitable demographic features, human development and electricity consumption are also found to contribute to economic convergence in the sample countries of Asia.Findings of this paper indicate the need to complement the favorable demographic endowments in Asian economies with economically productive usage of ICT to proceed towards economic convergence in Asian Region.
TL;DRThe need to complement the favorable demographic endowments in Asian economies with economically productive usage of ICT to proceed towards economic convergence in Asian Region is indicated. (Semantic Scholar)