Information and Communication Technology and Iranian Economic Growth

The empirical studies have indicated that the contribution of information and communication technology to growth in developed and some developing countries are significant, particularly in the second half of the 1990s.There is still room for more investigation, specially in developing countries, where the socio-economic infrastructure may not fully support the positive link between ICT & economic growth. This paper employs an endogenous growth model to estimate the contribution of ICT in the Iranian economic growth using the state space method. This study reveals a positive and significant effect of communication investment on the economic growth in the late 1990s. Our results suggest that an increase in the ICT expenditure across various economic activities as well as improved complementary factors will eventually lead to higher economic growth.