Nonlinear impacts of information and communications technology investment on industrial structure upgrading: the role of marketization

ABSTRACT

This paper employs the dynamic panel threshold model to estimate the industrial upgrading effect of information and communications technology (ICT) investment in view of the role of marketization. Based on provincial-level data from 2008 to 2016 in China, the empirical results show that under a better institutional environment of marketization, ICT investment has an increasing marginal effect on the upgrading of the industrial structure. This implies that the diminishing marginal effect of ICT investment is compensated by the promotion of marketization. Overall, with higher-quality development of the market economy, ICT investment will play a more active role in upgrading the industrial structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Information and communications technology investment
• industrial structure upgrading
• dynamic panel threshold model
• marketization index

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C32
• L15
• L86

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).