ICT and Economic Resilience during COVID-19: Cross-Country Analysis

Abstract

The central objective of this paper is to empirically assess whether countries with better information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure suffered less GDP growth deceleration during COVID-19. The scope of this paper is to apply linear estimation to a sample of 117 economies, including 86 emerging market and developing economies and 31 advanced economies, to analyze the relationship between ICT and GDP growth deceleration during the pandemic period. Controlling for other variables that can also influence economic performance, we find empirical support for a positive impact of ICT. For a given COVID-19 infection rate, we find that economies with better internet access showed greater resilience, defined as less in terms of economic growth. The obvious policy implication is that governments should invest more in ICT infrastructure to strengthen the resilience of their economies in the face of major shocks.