ICT Use, Innovation, and Productivity : Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Cirera, Xavier ; Lage, Filipe ; Sabetti, Leonard

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: innovation;    iInformation and communications technology;    ICT;    productivity;    technology adoption;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7868
RP-ID  :  WPS7868

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper examines empirically thelinks between adoption of information and communicationstechnology (ICT), defined as usage by firms, innovation, andproductivity using firm-level data for a sample of sixSub-Saharan African countries: the Democratic Republic ofCongo (DRC), Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.Although adoption of information and communicationstechnology in these countries is still lagging behind OECDcountries, there is significant heterogeneity on adoptionrates across the countries. Kenya has the largest adoptionrate of computer, software, and Internet usage. TheDemocratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania experience loweradoption rates. The degree of internationalization of thefirm, use of technology, and extent of competition areimportant factors explaining firm-level use of ICT. Theresults of the estimates suggest that ICT use is animportant and robust enabler of product, process, andorganization innovation across all six countries. However,the final impact on productivity depends on the degree ofnovelty of the innovation introduced by the firm.