Effects of FDI, External Trade, and Human Capital of the ICT Industry on Sustainable Development in Taiwan

Abstract

Understanding how international trade, FDI and human capital (FDI-HC and ET-HC) in the ICT industry affect Taiwan’s stable economic growth between 2001 and 2020 is the main objective of this study. The empirical analysis method used in this study is mainly divided into two steps: First, it uses variables with reliability and authenticity as keywords for primary, data mining, and semantic network analysis (SNA). Second, it investigates the long- and short-term interactions between the variables using the vector error correction model (VECM). The results of data mining and SNA using FDI and ET as keywords reveal that terms connected to HC have high levels of centrality, clustering, and frequency. This finding implies that the variables FDI-HC and ET-HC are reliable and can be utilized as interaction variables. Moreover, FDI–HC and ET–HC exert positive short- and long-term influences on GDP, and ET–HC exerts strong mid- to long-term impacts on GDP, FDI–HC, and ET.