This study explored the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) on carbon emissions in emerging markets using panel data analysis methods (fixed effects, random effects, pooled OLS, FMOLS) with annual secondary data spanning from 1994 to 2014. Additionally, the study investigated whether financial development and economic growth are channels through ICT has an influence on carbon emissions. Without interaction terms, ICT was found to have had a significant positive influence on carbon emissions across all the four panel data analysis methods. After introducing interaction terms, financial development was found to be a channel through which ICT increased carbon emissions under the fixed effects, random effects and the FMOLS. Under the pooled OLS, financial development was found to be a channel through ICT enabled the reduction in carbon emissions. Economic growth was found to be a channel through ICT lowered down carbon emissions in emerging markets across all the four panel data analysis methods.

The study had two main objectives. Firstly, to investigate the impact of ICT on economic growth. Secondly, to explore whether energy consumption and human capital development are channels through which ICT influences economic growth in Africa. Whilst literature is unanimous when it comes to the positive impact of ICT on economic growth, not much has been investigated on the impact of the complementarity between (1) ICT and energy consumption and (2) ICT and human capital development on economic growth, especially in the African context. The current study used fixed effects, random effects, pooled OLS and the dynamic GMM with annual panel data ranging from 2001 to 2015. Whilst fixed and random effects show a significant positive relationship running from ICT towards economic growth, pooled OLS and the dynamic GMM produced results which show that ICT had a non-significant positive influence on economic growth in Africa. The interaction between ICT and energy consumption had a significant negative effect on economic growth across all the panel data analysis methods. The finding means that ICT enhanced economic growth through its energy efficiency impact in Africa, consistent with Lee and Brahmasrene (2014). The interaction between ICT and human capital development was found to have had a significant positive effect on economic growth in Africa, in line with Ortiz et al. (2015) whose study revealed that the complementarity between ICT and education enhanced economic growth. The study therefore urges the African continent authorities to develop, strengthen and implement sound human capital development in order to enhance the impact of ICT on economic growth. African countries are also urged to implement sound ICT growth policies in order to trigger energy efficiency led economic growth.

No abstract

The study investigated the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on electricity consumption in transitional economies using panel data analysis methods (dynamic generalized methods of moments [GMM], pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects, random effects) with annual secondary data ranging from 1995 to 2014. Majority of prior studies on the subject matter had not focused on the impact of ICT on electricity consumption but on energy consumption, which is a broader area. They also did not focus exclusively on transitional economies and they ignored both the dynamic characteristics of electricity consumption data and endogeneity issues. The study revealed that electricity consumption is positively and significantly influenced by its own lag, in line with theoretical literature (Nayan et al., 2013). However, the impact of ICT on electricity consumption was found to be mixed. For example, the influence of ICT on electricity consumption was found to be negative and non-significant under the dynamic GMM and pooled OLS. Fixed and random effects observed that ICT had a significant positive impact on electricity consumption in emerging markets. It is against this backdrop that the current study urges transitional economies to develop and implement policies that ensures that ICT gadgets being used reduces the quantity of electricity consumption. In other words, transitional economies should focus on developing or importing energy efficient ICT gadgets in order to meet the required energy saving threshold levels. Future studies should investigate channels through which ICT influences electricity consumption, in line with Shahbaz et al. (2014) whose study noted that the relationship between ICT and electricity consumption is non-linear.

Purpose: The study investigated the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on poverty and if education enhanced the influence of ICT in BRICS