The Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and General Government Expenditures on the Economic Growth of MENA Countries

Information and communication technology (ICT) can increase economic growth by reorganizing production processes in more ways that are efficient. The results of most studies show the positive and significant impact of ICT on the economic growth of developed countries in the 1990s. The findings of some studies have also confirmed this positive relationship in developing countries; However, this issue should be considered for the selected countries of Mena due to their unbalanced characteristics and weak infrastructure. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of ICT, foreign direct investment (FDI) and General government expenditures on the Economic Growth of MENA countries during the years 1998 to 2019. For this analysis, the generalized method of moments (GMM) is used to analyze the subject. The results showed that the effect of ICT on economic growth is positive and significant, the effect of FDI on economic growth is positive; but it is not statistically significant and the impact of government public spending on economic growth is negative and significant. It should be noted that the effect of other model variables, such as the International Transparency Index (IT), the degree of trade openness (GOPEN) and the rate of domestic capital of each worker (GKD), was not statistically significant.