The Impact of Digital Infrastructure on African Development
This paper estimates the impact of digital infrastructure on economic growth and its sources. The analysis uses system generalized method of moments and finds evidence of a causal impact from the digital infrastructure variables to economic growth,...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/382651637242152978/The-Impact-of-Digital-Infrastructure-on-African-Development http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36629 |
| Summary: | This paper estimates the impact of
digital infrastructure on economic growth and its sources.
The analysis uses system generalized method of moments and
finds evidence of a causal impact from the digital
infrastructure variables to economic growth, its sources,
income inequality, and poverty. The findings show that
mobile connections have an impact on economic growth through
the total factor productivity growth channel, while internet
users drive it by the capital accumulation channel.
Connections have a negative effect on the Gini coefficient,
and internet users have a negative effect on the poverty
headcount. The analysis also finds that human capital and
access to electricity are important complementarities for
digital infrastructure to reap benefits. There would be
large economic gains if Africa were to close the digital
infrastructure gap relative to other regions, yet there are
some issues of affordability and skills that need to be
addressed to reduce the usage gap and the digital divide
across gender, rural-urban, and firm size. |
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