مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are key enablers of innovation throughout the economy. Inmost OECD economies, information industries account for the largest share of business expenditures on research and development, amounting to about 25% of total business expenditures on research and development and 0.2% to 0.4% of GDP. Especially, in Finland, Israel, Korea and the United States, information industries account for 40% to over 50% of BERD, and ICT BERD alone represents between about 0.6% to N1.8% of GDP, reflecting the high research intensity of these economies and the sector itself (OECD, 2015).

With the sector of ICT attracting vast R&D investments in various countries, many studies have been performed to determine the relationship between ICT investment and economic growth. Representative studies have been conducted by Madden and Savage (1998), Oliner and Sichel (2000), Jorgenson (2001, 2005), Colecchia and Schreyer (2002), Plepys (2002), Datta and Agarwal (2004), Jorgenson and Motohashi (2005), Jalava and Pohjola (2008), Koutroumpis (2009), Martínez et al. (2010), Vu (2011, 2013), and Sassi and Goaied (2013). Many of these studies demonstrate a strong positive correlation between ICT investment and economic growth.

However, as asserted by Blomstrom et al. (1996) and Madden and Savage (1998), a strong correlation between investment and economic growth does not necessarily imply the presence of a causal relationship; the correlation between the two variables can be either bi-directional or uni-directional. Phillips (1986) also claims that a causal relationship may be formed due to contingent regression despite the lack of correlation between the two variables. Since the establishment of a relationship dependent on correlation may invite inappropriate policies, further examination is needed on the causal relationship of the two variables.