TITLE:
Does ICT Development, Innovation Dissemination Promote Economic Growth and Human Capital? An Econometric Approach Based on East African Countries
AUTHORS:
Roger Mugabe, Shulin Liu, Enock Byiringiro, Gashema Bruce
KEYWORDS:
ICT Development, Innovation Diffusion, Economic Growth, Panel VECM, East Africa, Human Capital
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies,
Vol.12 No.1,
March
29,
2024
ABSTRACT: The East African Countries’ economic landscape has been significantly trans-formed over the last two decades as a result of the Information revolution, innovation, fostering sustainable economic growth. The dynamics between ICT development, innovation diffusion, and long-term economic growth have not been given substantial consideration in previous literature. In addition, there are prospective gaps in the nature of the ICT-innovation-growth nexus that current empirical studies have not thoroughly considered. This paper examines causal relationships among ICT development, Innovation diffusion, sustainable economic growth, and human capital development in East Afri-can countries from 2000 to 2020. The aim is to explore the direction of cau-sality relationships among variables that runs both ways, one way, or not at all. We employed the Dynamic Order Least Square (DOLS) and Panel Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) models and a Granger causality test. Results from the DOLS show that both ICT development and innovation contribute positively to sustainable growth and human capital development in all East African countries. However, the marginal effects of innovation on sustainable growth are very small compared to ICT development, especially for some countries. The VECM result confirms significant causal relationships among the studied variables in the short and long run. The findings shed light on the types of policies and approaches that would be necessary for sustainable economic growth in East African economies. This can be achieved if organi-zations engaged in the East African agenda for prosperity provide the support needed to complement different governments’ efforts in advancing ICT pene-tration and innovation diffusion in East Africa.