Growth Convergence in OECD Countries: Focusing on the ICT and Using Spatial Regression Approach

초록

In this paper, we examine how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) affect the convergence of economic growth rates for OECD countries from 2001 to 2017. To do so, we apply spatial regression models with various spatial weights: geographic distance weight and economic distance weight. Our results confirm that economic growth convergence can occur in spatial dimension. We also find that population growth and human capital have stronger spillover for economic distance weight than geographic distance weight. On the other hand, physical capital and ICT variables have more significant spillover effects for geographic distance weight than economic distance weight. According to our results, Internet and mobile phone can be geographically spilled over different countries rather than economically close countries. In the meantime, human-related factors still deserve more attention for better understanding of spillover among economically similar countries.

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