Macroeconomic Effects of Information and Communication Technologies in Turkey and Other OECD Member Countries

This paper investigates the effects of ICT on economic growth in Turkey and other OECD member countries. After discussing the theoretical relationships between ICT usage and economic growth, we test the positive impact of ICT revolution on economic growth econometrically. In the empirical part of the study, we perform panel data analyses by employing data sets that belong to 30 OECD member countries for 1999-2008 period as well as carrying out time series analyses for only Turkey by using data between 1980 and 2009. We find out that ICT usage and production have a positive significant effect on economic growth in OECD case. However, due to some methodological difficulties and insufficiency of critical mass regarding ICT area and complementary physical and social infrastructures in Turkey, we cannot find any significant relationship between ICT and economic growth for Turkish case.