Essays on information and communication technology: Investment, post-adoption and economic impacts

Abstract

In spite of legitimate concerns about measurement, data, and statistical models, the evidence of positive and significant productivity gains related to ICT investment is still strong. Therefore, a useful approach would be to focus less on the question of whether ICT creates value, but more on how, when, and why benefits occur or fail to do so. The primary objective of this thesis is to remedy certain methodological inadequacies in previous studies. For example, by employing time series analysis tools, spurious regression problem is eliminated. The other main objective is to investigate a few channels through which ICT may boost economic growth at the national and international levels, such as the channel of FDI, and spillover effects. The last objective of this research is to investigate the determinants of Broadband Internet usage, since Broadband Internet is considered as an accelerator of economic growth. The current thesis brings together four partially related yet independent studies which focus on important, but insufficiently explored, dimensions of the ICT payoff question.