Definitions and Measures of ICT Impact on Growth: What is Really at Stake?

Many innovations have been introduced in national accounts in order to better gauge the information and communication technologies (ICT) diffusion impact: new ICT definitions; recognition of business and government software expenditures as fixed investment; hedonic price index. Nevertheless, there still does not exist any clear consensus about the magnitude of the ICT impact on growth. Our aim is to propose some explanations of this relative failure and also show that the debate should not be exclusively centered on quantitative methods. To this end, we take a close look at the two main questions concerning the debate surrounding the measure of the ICT impact: 1) Are there any substantial total factor productivity (TFP) gains generated by ICT diffusion or is it only a classic story of capital deepening increase ? 2) If there are indeed TFP gains, are they limited to ICT producers, as Robert J.Gordon claims, or is there any diffusion to ICT users ? The answer to the first question is really important only if it determines the length and the extent of an eventual growth cycle impulsed by ICT. The possibility that productivity gains mainly due to capital deepening generate strong and durable growth has been theoritically demonstrated by Greenwood and Jovanovic (1998), thanks to a vintage capital model. We precise the conditions under which this result can be obtained and discuss their empirical relevance. According to this approach, the true debate concerns the durability of the present technological shock, instead of its capacity to generate an autonomous technical progress. The answer to the second question is crucial because it could guide industrial policy choices. If TFP gains are limited to ICT producers, should a country always be an ICT producer, or will it anyway grow at a strong pace thanks to the fall of ICT prices ? The relevance of this economic debate is unfortunately poised by the shortcomings of available statistical tools. On one hand, the distinction between ICT users and producers is purely discretionary. On the other hand, TFP measure is completely distorted by the method used to evaluate the value of capital (cost-based prices against adjusted-quality prices). That is why we argue that the international diffusion of growth gains due to ICT essentially depends on the capacity of ICT producers' countries to stay in a rent keeping situation. The text is divided into two parts. The first one first makes a quick assessment of the adaptation of american national accounts to the " new economy ", and then underlines the limits of these changes. The second one shows that the economic debate on the importance of TFP gains acceleration and where they occur, although more complex because of these limits, can quite ignore them thanks to the implications of some endogeneous growth and international trade models.ICT; multifactor productivity; national accounts; hedonic prices

Global Innovation Policy Index

Ranks fifty-five nations' strategies to boost innovation capacity: policies on trade, scientific research, information and communications technologies, tax, intellectual property, domestic competition, government procurement, and high-skill immigration

Robots and us: towards an economics of the ‘Good Life’

(Expected) adverse effects of the ‘ICT Revolution’ on work and opportunities for individuals to use and develop their capacities give a new impetus to the debate on the societal implications of technology and raise questions regarding the ‘responsibility’ of research and innovation (RRI) and the possibility of achieving ‘inclusive and sustainable society’. However, missing in this debate is an examination of a possible conflict between the quest for ‘inclusive and sustainable society’ and conventional economic principles guiding capital allocation (including the funding of research and innovation). We propose that such conflict can be resolved by re-examining the nature and purpose of capital, and by recognising mainstream economics’ utilitarian foundations as an unduly restrictive subset of a wider Aristotelian understanding of choice

The Effects of Information And Communication Technology In Hungarian Economic Sectors

As the author could not find a reassuring mathematical and statistical method in the literature for studying the effect of information communication technology on enterprises, the author suggested a new research and analysis method that he also used to study the Hungarian economic sectors. After a brief introduction to the theoretical background of the Information Age, the author examines the question of what factors have an effect on their net income is essential for enterprises. First, the potential indicators related to economic sectors were studied, then the author compared those indicators to the net income of the surveyed enterprises. The data resulting from the comparison showed that the growing penetration of electronic marketplaces contributed to the change of the net income of enterprises in various economic sectors. Among all the potential indicators, only the indicator of electronic marketplaces has a direct influence on the net income of enterprises. It was practical to determine two clusters based on the potential indicators

The productivity of the public sector in OECD countries: eGovernment as driver of efficiency and efficacy

This article aims at illustrating a theoretical approach to the analysis of the dynamics of productivity in the public sector, and at presenting a preliminary application of it to the estimation of the impact on productivity of the recent development of e-Government processes in a number of OECD countries. Our analysis serves a twofold purpose: at the microeconomic level, we set out to provide individual public administrations (PAs) with an instrument to evaluate the benefits, in terms of output, of alternative projects, particularly through a more efficient organisation of the relevant information. At the macroeconomic level, the aim is to highlight a significant relationship between e-Government and economic growth, as an indicator of social wellbeing.e-Government, ICT, public sector, productivity growth

Psychology and Sustainability, Homo Technicusand Slow Tech

Psychology and Sustainability, Homo Technicus and Slow TechIn previous issues of Visions for Sustainabilitywe have often published papers that consider the relationship between psychology and sustainability. On the one hand, researchers have examined various aspects of the incompatibility between how human societies and individuals behave in order to satisfy their needs and their desires and the natural processes that are essential for maintaining ecological balance and integrity, both for the people themselves and the environments they inhabit. Problems of sustainability are clearly related to human behaviours and therefore are a part of the psychological sphere. Studies have often focused on examining ways of promoting pro-environmental and reducing anti-environmental behaviours

The 'New Economy' and Economic Growth in Transition Economies

post-communist transition, new economy, ICT, economic growth