Human Development and Macroeconomic Returns within the Context of Investments in Telecoms: An Exploration of Transition Economies

Abstract

Previous investigations into macroeconomic impact of investments in information and communications technology (ICT), while primarily focused on developed economies, have yielded some important insights. For example, it was determined that: (1) the investments-to-revenues model works well only if a threshold level of ICT capital infrastructure has been developed, (2) it is not the quantity but the quality of the full-time ICT workforce that plays an important role in converting a stream of investments in ICT into revenues and in achieving a spillover effect of investments that is captured by total factor productivity (TFP). In this study we investigate the impact of human development, as measured by the human development index (HDI), on macroeconomic outcomes and TFP. The subject of the study is a group of transition economies, a set of highly related economies that has the Leaders group that has some of the characteristics of developed economies and the Followers group that has some of the characteristics of less-developed economies. Results of our investigation offer evidence that HDI has a statistically significant impact on GDP (gross domestic product) and TFP only in the case of the Leaders.

Keywords:

• human development
• HDI
• investments in ICT
• telecoms
• economic development
• total factor productivity
• transition economies
• developing/emerging economies

Notes on contributors

Sergey Samoilenko is an Associate Professor of Computer Science/Computer Information System and a chair of the Department of Computer Science at Averett University. His research interests include IT and Productivity, Data Mining, and Information Systems Development. Dr. Samoilenko has published in various journals including: Information Systems Frontiers, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Information Technology for Development, OMEGA, and Expert Systems with Applications.

Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson is Professor of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently does research in various areas including: Data Mining, Expert Systems, Decision Support Systems, IT & Productivity, Information Systems Outsourcing, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. Dr. Osei – Bryson has published in various journals including: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge & Data Engineering, Data & Knowledge Engineering, Information & Software Technology, Decision Support Systems, Information Processing and Management, Information Systems, Computers & Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Annals of Operations Research, Mathematical & Computer Modeling, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, and Application of Management Science.