The impacts of country characteristics upon the value of information technology as measured by productive efficiency

Based on the theory of production, this paper investigates information technology (IT) contribution at a country level by linking it to the complementarity/substitutability phenomena created by the joint presence of IT and the five selected national characteristics. It negates the relationship between IT value and productivity based on a comprehensive panel data set from 25 countries over the period 1997-2006, when the individual analytical method is applied and productive efficiency is used as the performance criterion. The IT productivity paradox is re-examined under the one-equation stochastic frontier production model, while the influence of the five national characteristics is tested under the two-equation stochastic frontier production model. The findings include the following: (i) The IT productivity paradox occurs in not only middle-income (developing) countries but also high-income (developed) countries. (ii) Eastern European countries gain more productive efficiency than the G7 countries when IT is considered as a production factor. (iii) Different national characteristics have impacts on a country's output and productive efficiency. (iv) The chosen national characteristics present both complementarity and substitutability phenomena in association with IT investment, however, the joint presence of national savings and IT creates the substitutability phenomenon across different frontiers. (v) In linking cross-country differences in the IT investments to stages of economic development, our complimentary qualitative analysis tends to conclude that the investments in IT in the advanced developed countries (e.g., G7) and some of the newly developed or emerging economies are likely needed to keep the pace with other competitors and maintain their status of economic development; and the IT investments in the Eastern European countries are necessary to reach the competitive level as well as to raise their economic-development level. (vi) An important policy implication is that policy makers must carefully utilize national characteristics while formulating IT investment strategies.     

Information technology and its changing roles to economic growth and productivity in Australia

In this paper we describe our investigation of the role of investment in information technology (IT) on economic output and productivity in Australia over a period of about four decades. The framework used in this paper is the aggregate production function, where IT capital is considered as a separate input of production along with non-IT capital and labour. The empirical results from the study indicate the evidence of robust technical progress in the Australian economy in the 1990s. IT capital had a significant impact on output, labour productivity and technical progress in the 1990s. In recent years, however, the contribution of IT capital on output and labour productivity has slowed down. Regaining the IT capital productivity therefore remains as a key challenge for Australia, especially in the context of greater IT investment in the future.     

东莞台资IT企业集群产业结构剖析

东莞台资IT企业集群是国际资本聚集的直接结果，本文对东莞台资IT企业集群的投资结构，产品结构、技术结构，出口结构进行了剖析，并在此基础上分析了该集群的主要特点，最后对其发展前景进行分析。     

经济增长与城市化速度和投资驱动

本文利用投资、城市化速度和经济增长构成PSVAR系统，分析了三者之间复杂的相互关系。得到结论：（1）结果支持既有文献关于投资促进城市化、城市化促进经济增长的判断；（2）经济增长对投资的长期弹性为0.490387311，表明投资仍然是我国经济增长的重要驱动力；（3）城市化速度对经济增长的累积响应为 -0.002826893，表明从长期看经济增长会抑制城市化速度，使得城市化进程速度趋缓。根据上述实证结果，我们提出以下建议：投资是我国经济增长的重要驱动力，在鼓励消费和扩大外需的情况下投资也不能忽视，但在我国经济增长方式转型的背景下，我们要依靠有效的投资而不是落后产能和重复投资；经济增长从长期看抑制城市化进程，我国少数大城市集中大量资源，吸引大量人口，但伴随这些高收入，大城市的高生活成本并不利于我国城市化进程的进一步推进，因而我国采取新型城镇化规划，启动国家中心城市布局建设，实现经济空间的优化乃是必要的。     

Corporate Governance and returns on information technology investment: evidence from an emerging market

Prior studies have reported mixed findings on the impact of corporate information technology (IT) investment on firm performance. This study investigates the effect of corporate governance, an important management control mechanism, on the relation between IT investment and firm performance in the Taiwanese electronics industry. Specifically, we explore board independence and foreign ownership, which have increasingly become salient factors concerning corporate governance in emerging markets. We address their roles across firms of different sizes and in industries where degrees of competitiveness run a wide gamut. Our results show a positive moderating effect of board independence on the IT investment‐firm performance relation, especially when competition intensifies. Furthermore, we find that the greater the foreign ownership in small firms, the more positive the IT investment‐firm performance relation, suggesting that foreign investors may bring IT expertise to help small firms reap the benefits of using IT. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Information Technology, US Union Organizing and Union Effectiveness

This paper examines the effects of information technology (IT) on organizing and union effectiveness in US national unions. Original survey data and data from government and independent sources are combined to model outcomes including membership growth, success in representation elections, and union leaders' assessments of effectiveness as a product of environmental and organizational characteristics. The results suggest that the practical impact of IT use on organizing outcomes can be quite important. Evidence regarding the impact of IT on overall effectiveness (i.e. organizational or union effectiveness) is more mixed.     

中国对外直接投资、东道国政府治理与经济增长 ——基于东盟国家的经验证据

东盟作为我国新一轮对外开放和“一带一路”建设的重要区域,一直是我国对外直接投资的重点关注对象。评估东盟各国的政府治理水平,可以更好的判断投资环境、识别风险,助力双方互惠共赢。本文通过构建东盟国家的政府治理指数,实证分析中国对外直接投资、东盟国家政府治理对东盟国家经济增长的影响,研究表明:中国对外直接投资促进了东盟国家的经济增长;东盟国家的政府治理对其经济增长并没有直接影响,但是却抑制了中国直接投资对东盟国家经济增长的促进作用。未来中国对东盟国家的直接投资应更注重长期效应,重视营商环境以及国家吸收外国投资的能力,根据东盟国家的政治经济发展差异,实行“一国一策”的投资策略。     

The impact of ICT patents on economic growth: An international evidence

This study aims to examine the impact of inventions, measured by the number of new patents, on economic growth. Specifically, we focus on patents in the ICT sector for a global sample of 43 economies, comprising 26 advanced and 17 emerging market economies in the period 1998 to 2016. We use a two-step system GMM to control for potential endogeneity in the data. Our results are threefold. First, total patents have mutually causal effects with economic growth, but there is no evidence of an impact of total patents on manufacturing sector growth. At the same time, ICT patents have a unidirectional causal impact on both, overall economic growth, and the growth of services and manufacturing. Second, the impact of total patents on economic growth is stronger in advanced economies. At the same time, ICT patents have a positive significant impact on the growth of advanced economies and a negative significant effect on the growth of emerging economies. Third, in the long-run, ICT patents have a positive significant impact on economic growth, while total patents do not.     

ICT and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Transmission channels and effects

Despite significant progress in the empirical analysis of the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on economic growth, previous studies have not empirically examined the mechanisms by which ICT hinders or expands economic growth. The specific aim of the present study was to identify the transmission channels through which ICT contributes to economic growth. The examined channels included; openness, FDI inflows, education, domestic investment, political institution, and inflation. The study employed the panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE) and system two step system GMM techniques on a sample of 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the period 2004–2020. Using an ICT composite index, the causal mediation analysis identified that ICT contributed directly to growth, as proposed by the growth theories. Furthermore, the same analysis identified; domestic investment, openness, and education as crucial variables through which ICT penetration indirectly promoted per capita growth in the SSA region. The robustness of this result was verified using a variety of tools. The present findings suggested that the current efforts to expand ICTs in Sub-Saharan Africa should be continued since this sector has a considerable indirect impact on promoting economic growth.     

金融集聚、产业结构与环境污染——基于中国省域空间计量分析

本文利用2007～2014年中国省域面板数据,基于Arcgis、Geoda和Matlab软件平台,建立空间面板数据模型,实证分析了金融集聚、产业结构对不同环境污染物的差异影响,并讨论了技术进步、环境治理投资、对外开放度、经济增长水平对环境污染的影响。结果表明,3种污染物存在明显的空间自相关;银行业集聚和证券业集聚对环境污染没有显著影响,保险业集聚对于不同环境污染物具有差异影响;第二产业发展和调整促进了二氧化硫排放的增加、工业废水和工业粉尘的减少;不同控制变量对不同环境污染物具有差异影响。因此,环境治理需要考虑区域间的协同效应,加大银行业和证券业环保投资支持力度,加快经济增长方式转 变,改善引进外资结构和环境治理投资结构,重点推进控制工业粉尘排放的技术创新。     

转轨背景下国债与经济增长关系的长短期动态研究——基于SVAR模型的实证分析

本文使用1994～2015年中国宏观经济数据,利用SVAR模型对转轨背景下我国国债发行的经济增长效应进行长短期的动态实证研究,分析结果显示：短期范围内我国国债对经济具有提升作用,但在长期我国国债规模的持续膨胀将会阻碍经济的稳定健康发展。而且,从脉冲响应图可以看出我国国债对私人投资存在先挤入后挤出效应,通过我们进一步对模型中各经济变量进行方差分解以后我们发现,从长期角度来看,私人投资比国债对经济和投资波动的解释程度要大,但没有国债对于通货膨胀波动的解释程度大。最后,根据我国目前的经济形势提出了转轨时期如何科学管理我国国债的相关建议。     

Mutual commitment to support exchange: relation‐specific IT system as a substitute for managerial hierarchy

This paper examines the effects of information technology (IT) on the governance of vertically related firms. We propose that a highly relation‐specific IT system in inter‐firm transactions plays a key role in the resulting inter‐firm governance as a mutual sunk‐cost commitment, in terms of leading to both less vertical integration (i.e., a change in governance mode as a first‐order effect) and a smaller number of suppliers (i.e., a change within a governance mode as a second‐order effect). As a result, this highly relation‐specific IT system (bilateral investment) can be an alternative governance mode of electronic integration that acts as a substitute for managerial hierarchy and vertical financial ownership. From a strategic management perspective, this paper provides transaction costs and resource‐based explanations on IT systems' impact on the organizational boundary decision and its impact on the likelihood of the firm achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

外商直接投资的产业结构效应——基于江苏数据的协整分析

外商直接投资结构和产业结构的优化对经济增长起着重要的作用,格兰杰因果检验验证了它们之间的关系,并通过协整检验发现三者之间的协整关系,由实证分析可知,第一产业比重的下降会促进第一产业外商直接投资增速的增长和经济增长,第二产业外商直接投资增速的增长和第二产业比重的下降会促进经济增长,第三产业外商直接投资增速的增长和第三产业比重上升会促进经济增长.     

Take your partners: Public private interplay in Australian and New Zealand plans for next generation broadband

Within a few days of each other in early 2009, the national governments of Australia and New Zealand announced separate plans to invest heavily in advanced broadband networks. Taxpayers in each country will contribute at least half the estimated cost of fibre-to-the-premises networks reaching the overwhelming majority of households and businesses within 8–10 years. These complex and controversial forms of ‘public private interplay’ demonstrate three trends: a shift away from the liberalization and privatization policy consensus of the last two decades; shared convictions about the anticipated size of fast broadband’s economic and social benefits, and about the need for wholesale-only fixed line network operation to maximize those benefits; and the unlikely impact of the global financial and economic crisis in stimulating investment in particular infrastructures seen as critical to the national economies that emerge from it. This article discusses industry structures and regulation in Australia and New Zealand, their long history of public investment in telecommunications and the recent popularity of public private partnerships (PPPs) with Australian state governments. It outlines the ambitious broadband plans and surveys their prospects. Like so many other policy actions following the global economic crisis, these are distinctively national responses to internationally shared challenges.     

未来15年中国经济增长潜力与“十四五”时期经济社会发展主要目标及指标研究

“十三五”时期中国经济社会发展取得了显著成绩,脱贫攻坚成就举世瞩目,“四新经济”蓬勃发展,营商环境明显改善,对外开放水平显著提高,环境污染治理成效明显,各方面风险管控有力。本文从供给侧角度,基于人口结构的变化预测未来潜在增长率。不断降低的总和生育率和人口老龄化趋势都将对供给侧生产要素产生直接的负向影响,最终会导致潜在经济增长率放缓。本文在情景预测中考虑了产能利用率和不能增加有效生产能力的环境污染治理投资对实际利用资本存量的影响。未来15年,中国经济不仅规模显著增加,而且结构也将发生明显变化。“十四五”时期,推动中国经济社会持续健康发展,应遵循如下几个基本原则:坚持以高质量发展为导向,以创新驱动为基石,以全面深化改革为动力,以更高水平开放为牵引,坚持以人民为中心的发展思想。立足于“十三五”末期的国内外环境,按照开启基本实现社会主义现代化建设新征程的目标要求,“十四五”时期中国经济社会发展的主要目标应该涵盖以下六个方面:创新驱动取得显著进展,产业升级取得显著成效,国内市场得到显著提升,人民生活得到显著改善,绿色发展取得显著进展,国家治理体系更加完善。基于这些主要目标和中国经济未来增长潜力预测,参考国家中长期相关专项规划,并要留有余地,本文对“十四五”时期主要指标的选择及其目标设定给出了具体建议。     

International R&D project evaluation by multinational corporations in the electronics and IT industry of Singapore

This paper explores a number of variables associated with the evaluation of international R&D projects by multinational corporations (MNCs) in the electronics and IT industry of Singapore. Empirical analysis of the data collected from R&D managerial executives suggests a series of considerations in relation to their R&D investments. It is desirable if R&D can create a potential impact on the growth of their regional and international businesses. In considering the risks associated with an R&D project, a balance approach would be appropriate when demanding a return on investment. In particular, the consistence with customer demands, the achievement of time‐based competitiveness, the training of R&D manpower and the development of conducive innovation environments are fundamental to the success of international R&D projects.     

信息产业与中国经济增长的实证分析

信息产业对经济增长的贡献不断上升,对优化产业结构和平抑物价总水平的上涨都起到了重要的作用,已成为经济发展的主导产业部门。信息产业较高的全要素生产率增长率,使得中国技术进步的变化越来越依赖信息技术的创新和应用。在当前全球经济危机的背景下,信息技术产业依然是我国经济增长的重要源泉。     

Race to the top: Does competition in the DSL market matter for fibre penetration?

High speed broadband creates potential productivity gains and has a positive impact on economic growth. Achieving Europe's broadband access objectives will require large scale investment in next generation broadband networks, and it is imperative that an appropriate investment climate is created to encourage fibre network rollout. This study considers whether and how competition in the DSL market affects the incentives of operators to invest in the deployment of high-end fibre optic networks. Most earlier research on the drivers of investment in broadband technology has focused on the effect of mandatory access policies, such as local loop unbundling, or competing infrastructures. We posit that competition in the DSL sector may also influence fibre penetration, possibly to a considerable extent. We find that the relationship between service-based competition and fibre penetration is non-linear: a lack of or severe DSL competition is correlated with a negative effect on fibre penetration, but if a moderate degree of competition is already present in the market, more service-based competition may positively influence fibre penetration. The scale of these effects however varies with the openness of the DSL market: operators' incentives to invest in fibre appear to be more sensitive to changes in DSL competition if there is extensive local loop unbundling.     

Computer Use and Productivity Growth in US Federal Government Agencies, 1987–92

We examine the impact of information technology (IT) on productivity in the public sector econometrically, using data from the BLS Federal Productivity Measurement Program and from Computer Intelligence Infocorp, and by interviewing some government officials. We estimate a production function for government services that includes IT capital as an input, and find a strong positive relationship across federal agencies between productivity growth and computer-intensity growth during the period 1987–92, controlling for growth in compensation and other outlays per employee, and in the number of employees. Our estimates are consistent with the hypothesis that there are 'excess returns' to IT capital.     

Impact of data trade restrictions on IT services export: A cross-country analysis

Trade in digital goods and services have witnessed increasing growth in recent years, accompanied by a corresponding increase in data flows across national boundaries. At the same time, governments around the world have enacted data policies that restrict such cross border data flows in their effort to claim sovereignty over data generated from within their countries. However, scholars have long proclaimed that any restrictions to the Internet and associated digital trade will have serious economic consequences. Given this context, we analyze the impact of data policies that impose restrictions on digital trade, specifically on cross border data flows. We construct Market Data Restrictions Index (MDRI), that measures the data restrictions faced by an exporting country from their trade partners. We use a variation of random effect model on a panel data set consisting of 60 countries that contribute to more than 50 percent of IT services export during the period 2006–2017. The results indicate that apart from variables such as Foreign Direct Investment, and Service Value Added, the MDRI of partner countries has a moderate negative effect on IT services export. If countries move from liberal policies to stringent data restrictions, the economies of the country that exports its ICT services to these partner countries is affected substantially. Hence government regulators shall be cautious in imposing stringent data restrictions as it affects global digital trade.