Publication: Do Poor Countries Really Need More IT?: The Role of Relative Prices and Industrial Composition
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Date
2015-06
ISSN
Published
2015-06
Author(s)
Gaggl, Paul
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Abstract
Conventional wisdom suggests too little information and communication technologies (ICT) in poor countries. Indeed, within 70 countries at various levels of development, there is a positive relationship between income per capita and the capital share of ICT. While this regularity is consistent with explanations based on technology adoption lags and ICT-labor substitutability, there is little empirical support for these hypotheses. Instead, the paper establishes that this regularity can be fully accounted for by (a) relatively higher ICT prices in low-income countries and (b) industrial composition.
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“Gaggl, Paul; Eden, Maya. 2015. Do Poor Countries Really Need More IT?: The Role of Relative Prices and Industrial Composition. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7352. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22229 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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