How Does Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Affect GDP per Capita and Trade Volume in Land Locked Developing Countries in Asia, Africa, and South America?

Abstract

This paper aims to quantify the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Trade volume and GDP per Capita. Due to lack direct access to the warm waters, high transport and transit costs land locked developing countries are at a significant economic disadvantage compared to the rest of the world. In quantifying the effect of ICT on economic growth and trade volume, I employ a two-way fixed effect model to quantify the effect of ICT growth on trade volume and GDP per Capita. I use secondary data from the World Bank Database and International Telecommunication Union. This paper aims to quantify the effect of ICT development in terms different ICT indicators. Indicators required for enabling infrastructure or the adoption of technology among the population as identified by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are Fixed-telephone subscriptions, Mobile-cellular subscriptions, Percentage of Individuals using the Internet, Fixed-broadband subscriptions, Mobile-broadband subscriptions, and international bandwidth. This paper applied annual data across a timespan of 14 years, from 2007 to 2020. When regressed GDP per capita and trade volume against all the independent variables and co-variate I find that any one percent Mobile Cellular subscription increases GDP per capita and trade volume by 0.156% and 0.421% respectively.