Energy Consumption, Information and Communication Technology and Economic Growth in an African Context

Abstract

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.

The Impact of Innovation and Information Technology on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Case of the Visegrád Countries

“…In addition, stationary time series were used to calculate the unknown parameters of models (2) and (3). The analysis results confirmed that widespread tests for checking the time series stationarity were Dicky-Fuller and Phillips-Perron tests (Akimova et al 2017;Raheem et al 2020;Chimbo 2020;Arshad et al 2020). Thus, the main stage of estimating the impact of innovation and information technology on greenhouse gas emission were:…”

“…On the contrary, the scientists Chimbo (2020) and Raheem et al (2020) proved that ICT has a negative impact on GDP and CO 2 emissions. Further, Chimbo (2020) confirmed that, for African countries, spreading of ICT led to an increase of energy consumption. Chimbo (2020) and Raheem et al (2020) estimated ICT by the following variables: telephone landlines, mobile phone penetration and internet penetration.…”

“…Further, Chimbo (2020) confirmed that, for African countries, spreading of ICT led to an increase of energy consumption. Chimbo (2020) and Raheem et al (2020) estimated ICT by the following variables: telephone landlines, mobile phone penetration and internet penetration. Siddiqui and Singh (2020) estimated a link between the ICT penetration and the economic growth using the Breusch-Pagan Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test, Pooled OLS, and fully modified OLS (FMOLS).…”

Human Development Index, ICT, and Renewable Energy-Growth Nexus for Sustainable Development: A Novel PVAR Analysis

“…The empirical findings imply an affirmative and vigorous effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic augmentation, although the amount of the benefit varies depending on the type of technology studied. Similarly (Chimbo, 2020), ICT increased economic growth through its energy efficiency effect in Africa by using the GMM model from 2001 to 2015. Since ICT and human development have remained important topics in recent years, Gupta et al (2019) evaluated how evolution in ICT could stimulate human capital advancement for the South Asian region over the period of 2000 to 2016 by using the panel fixed effects model.…”

Determination of Consumer Switching Barriers to Use Prepaid Electricity Systems in the Household Sector in Makassar, Indonesia

“…Elfaki et al (2020 state that there is a reciprocal relationship between electricity consumption, international trade openness, and economy in Sudan. Chimbo, (2020) expresses that there is a link between energy consumption, human capital development through communication and information technologies and a nation's economic growth.…”