The role of openness in the effect of ICT on governance^*

* Sajda Qureshi is the accepting Editor-in-Chief for this article.

ABSTRACT

The study investigates how openness influences information and communication technology (ICT) penetration for improved government quality in sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2000–2012. Openness is measured in terms of trade and financial globalization whereas ICT is proxied with mobile phone and internet penetration rates. Ten bundled and unbundled governance indicators are used. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments with forward orthogonal deviations. The main findings are First, financial openness has an edge over trade openness when combined with ICT to affect both economic and institutional governance. Second, mobile phones have an edge over internet penetration in complementing (i) trade openness for economic governance and (ii) financial openness for institutional governance. Third, net effects on political governance are consistently negative. Taken together, in the short-run, openness-driven ICT policies are more rewarding in terms of economic and institutional governance than political governance. Fourth, catch-up in governance is facilitated by the interaction between openness and ICT. Contributions of these findings to literature are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Openness
• ICT
• governance
• Africa

Acknowledgement

The authors are indebted to the editor and reviewers for constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Simplice A. Asongu is Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town. He is also the Lead Economist and Director of the African Governance and Development Institute. His research interest includes knowledge economy, financial development and inclusive development.

Jacinta C. Nwachukwu is a Senior Lecturer in Faculty of Business and Law at Coventry University. Her research interest includes knowledge economy, financial development and inclusive development.

Notes

* Sajda Qureshi is the accepting Editor-in-Chief for this article.

1 Openness may be used interchangeably with globalization throughout the paper.

2 It is important to substantiate how the MDG extreme poverty target, the post-2015 sustainable development agenda and the poverty Sub-Saharan Africa are related. At least six of the seventeen SDGs are concerned with the need to enhance inclusive development, namely: Goal 1(end poverty in all its forms everywhere), Goal 2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture); Goal 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages); Goal 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all); Goal 8 (promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all) and Goal 10 (reduce inequality within and among countries). The interested reader can find more information on the SDGs in Michel (2016).

3 Emphasis on original.

4 The works include Stock and Watson (2002), Bai (2003), Pesaran (2006), Bai (2009) and Greenaway-McGrevy, Han, and Sul (2012).