Abstract

The objective of this work is to assess the effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on structural change in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, perceived through the new school of Knowledge Economy (KE), ICTs present today more opportunities and development prospects for SSA countries. As knowledge, ICTs have emerged as an unlimited resource that SSA countries can draw on to drive structural change. This paper uses data from the World Bank’s Interprise Surveys from 2004 to 2019 on 28 SSA countries. We first assess structural change using Fabricant’s (1942) method, and then investigate the effects of ICTs on structural change using panel instrumental regression. The results show that the level of internet use and the level of telephone use positively affect structural change in SSA. However, the effects of the internet are more significant and larger than those of telephony and can be explain by the lower adoption and the upper specialised skills needed of internet compared to telephony, who creates more heterogeneity in the case of internet use. These results argue in favour of promoting ICT tools that require specific skills, thereby accelerating the mobility of skilled workers and accelerating structural change.

中文翻译：

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信息和通信技术对撒哈拉以南非洲地区结构变化的影响

摘要

这项工作的目的是评估信息和通信技术（ICT）对撒哈拉以南非洲地区结构变化的影响。事实上，通过知识经济（KE）新学派的认识，信息通信技术为撒哈拉以南非洲国家带来了更多的机遇和发展前景。作为知识，信息通信技术已成为撒哈拉以南非洲国家可以用来推动结构变革的无限资源。本文使用世界银行 2004 年至 2019 年对 28 个撒哈拉以南非洲国家进行的企业调查的数据。我们首先使用 Fabricant (1942) 方法评估结构变化，然后使用面板工具回归研究 ICT 对结构变化的影响。结果表明，互联网使用水平和电话使用水平对SSA的结构变化产生积极影响。然而，互联网的影响比电话更显着、更大，这可以通过与电话相比互联网的采用率较低和所需的专业技能较高来解释，电话在互联网使用的情况下产生了更多的异质性。这些结果有利于推广需要特定技能的信息通信技术工具，从而加速技术工人的流动并加速结构变革。