Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/173656 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
AGDI Working Paper No. WP/17/050
Publisher: 
African Governance and Development Institute (AGDI), Yaoundé
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 globalisation 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.
Subjects: 
Openness
ICT
Governance
Africa
JEL: 
F40
O38
O40
O55
P37
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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