2024
Master's Thesis
Investigating the Multifaceted Factors Influencing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Growth
A cross-country panel study that treats ICT growth, measured by the share of the population using the internet, as an outcome of social, economic and political conditions. Using country and year fixed-effects models on World Bank and V-Dem data, it finds that GDP per capita and FDI inflows are positively associated with internet use, that the association with educational inequality is positive in the global model but varies by region, and that the negative association with political competition is sensitive to model specification.
- Methods and topics
- Country and year fixed-effects panel models
- Clustered robust standard errors
- Alternative and dynamic specifications
- Regional and period-specific analysis
- Key findings
- GDP per capita and FDI net inflows were positively associated with internet usage.
- Educational inequality had a positive coefficient globally, with signs that varied by region.
- The negative association with political competition was not robust to dynamic and period-specific models.
- Keywords
- ICT
- digital inclusion
- educational inequality
- political competition
- FDI
- economic development
- internet penetration
- Status
- Completed
- Associational design — not a causal analysis