The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on International Trade: The Case of MENA Countries

Kamel Touati () and Ahmed Aljazea ()
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Kamel Touati: Department of Business Administration, College of Administrative Science, Najran University, Najran 1988, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Aljazea: Department of Business Administration, College of Administrative Science, Najran University, Najran 1988, Saudi Arabia

Economies, 2023, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Given the importance of international trade, we empirically investigate the impact of information and communication technologies on the exports, imports, and total trade of five service items by using a panel data for 19 MENA countries from 2005 to 2019. Unlike most previous studies, we use the Information and Communication Technologies Development Index, which is a composite index that combines 11 indicators that include the access, use, and skill aspects of the technology. The results are as follows: the Information and Communication Technologies Development Index has a negative and statistically significant effect on exports of information technology services, and a positive and statistically significant effect on imports and total trade in financial services. Furthermore, we found also that the Information and Communication Technologies access sub-index has a significant effect on total trade in information technology services and transport. For the Information and Communication Technologies use sub-index, its effect on imports of travel services and exports of both travel and information technology services is significant. It also has a significant positive effect on total trade in travel and information technology services. As for the Information and Communication Technologies skills sub-index, the results show that it has significant positive effects on total trade in IT services and travel, and a negative significant effect on transport. These results provide interesting policy insights for information and communication technologies development and the growth of services trade for policy makers.

Keywords: system generalized method of moments (GMM-S); information and communication technologies (ICTs); e-commerce; international trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E F I J O Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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