Internet adoption and financial development in sub-Saharan Africa

Are digital business and digital public services a driver for better energy security? Evidence from a European sample

“…We emphasize the role of the digital transformation process that is adopted in the business sector and public sector. Previous studies, such as Faisal et al ( 2018 ), Ferro ( 2011 ), Haini ( 2019 ) Owusu-Agyei et al ( 2020 ), Tamazian et al ( 2009 ), and Salahuddin et al ( 2015 ) have simply assessed the effects of the internet use, the prevalence of phones or electronic devices, or some technological improvement on the specific aspect of energy security. Other papers like Dogan and Aslan ( 2017 ), Gokmenoglu and Eren ( 2019 ), Khan and Hou ( 2021a , b ), Khan et al ( 2021c ), or Zakari and Khan ( 2021 ) concentrate on the influences of energy security on the various dimensions of economic development.…”

“…Internet platform allows for more diverse financial models and credit channels, facilitating financial transfers between investors and businesses regardless of time or spatial boundaries (Salahuddin and Alam 2016 ; Salahuddin and Gow 2016 ; Salahuddin and Gow 2016 ). Based on that, companies will have more resources to invest in R&D, particularly in finding safe, efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly technology solutions (Faisal et al 2018 ; Owusu-Agyei et al 2020 ; Tamazian et al 2009 ; Salahuddin et al 2015 ).…”

Do ICTs drive wealth inequality? Evidence from a dynamic panel analysis

“…This rapid growth in ICT adoption is due to its ability to sublimate virtually all sectors of activity. To date, several studies have highlighted the beneficial effects of ICT along several dimensions of economic life, including the productive system (Oulton, 2002;Cardona et al, 2013), trade openness (Freund and Weinhold, 2002;Choi, 2010;Rodríguez-Crespo and Martínez-Zarzoso, 2019), environment (Higón et al, 2017;Asongu et al, 2018;Avom et al, 2020),corruption (Kanyam et al, 2017;Sassi and Ali, 2017;Adam, 2020), institutional quality Ali, 2020), economic sophistication (Lapatinas, 2019), industrialization (Njangang and Nounamo, 2020;Müller, 2021), financial development (Edo et al, 2019;Chien et al, 2020;Owusu-Agyei, 2020), health (Dutta et al, 2019;Kouton et al, 2020), education (Hernandez, 2017), inclusive human development , employment (Hjort and Poulsen, 2019;Ndubuisi et al, 2021), and most importantly economic growth (Vu, 2011;Hong, 2017;Albiman and Sulong, 2017;Niebel, 2018;Sawng et al, 2021;Appiah-Otoo and Song, 2021). However, whether and how ICT affects wealth inequality is less explored.…”

Financial development and economic growth nexus in SSA economies: The moderating role of telecommunication development

“…Given the premise that ICT modulates the effect of investments on economic growth, our first contribution is to examine why and how SSA economies' financial sector could explore telecommunication infrastructure avenues for building the capacity needed to improve the growth of the real sector. Such an approach is different from existing studies that have examined the individual effects of FD and telecommunication infrastructure on economic growth (see Myovella et al, 2020;Solomon & van Klyton, 2020;Owusu-Agyei et al, 2020;Nair et al, 2020;Assefa & Mollick, 2017;Oluitan, 2012) and studies that have rather examined the absorptive capacity role of other factors like institutional arrangements (Kacho & Dahmardeh, 2017) and democracy (Ishtiaq et al, 2016). Our second contribution is to undertake a more focused investigation of how specific telecommunication infrastructures can be deployed as effective instruments in financial sector policies and programmes for achieving economic growth in low-and middle-income countries like SSA countries.…”