Mohammad Salahuddin

The effects of Internet usage, financial development and trade openness on economic growth in South Africa

Investigate the relationship among Internet use, economic growth and financial development.Internet use has grown rapidly in the last few years in South Africa.The ARDL bounds testing is applied.Internet use and financial development stimulate economic growth.Further investment in Internet infrastructure is recommended. This study estimates the effects of Internet usage, financial development and trade openness on economic growth using annual time series data for South Africa for the period 1991-2013. Structural unit root test and Johansen and ARDL cointegration tests are performed to examine the long run relationship amongst Internet usage, financial development, trade openness and economic growth. Findings from ARDL cointegration tests indicate a long-run relationship between the variables. Results from the ARDL estimates indicate a positive and significant long run relationship between Internet usage and economic growth in South Africa. Also, there is significant positive relationship between financial development and economic growth. However, the short run relationship among the variables was found to be insignificant. The robustness of the long-run relationship between the variables was checked by the application of dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) estimation. The Granger causality test reveals that both Internet usage and financial development Granger-cause economic growth in South Africa. This causal link is found to be robust from the application of impulse response and variance decomposition analysis. Based on these findings, this study recommends that the South African government continue with policies that aim to invest more resources into its Internet infrastructure to further expand its network and usage.

Internet usage, electricity consumption and economic growth in Australia

Investigate the relationship among Internet usage, economic growth and electricity consumption.Internet use is growing rapidly in Australia.The ARDL model is used for empirical analysis.Internet usage and economic growth stimulate electricity consumption.Coordination between energy policy, ICT policy and growth policy is recommended. This study estimates the short- and long-run effects of the Internet usage and economic growth on electricity consumption using annual time series macro data for Australia for the period 1985-2012. ARDL bounds test for cointegration and Granger causality test for causal link are applied. Results from ARDL estimates indicate that the Internet use and economic growth stimulate electricity consumption in Australia. Internet usage and economic growth have no significant short-run relationship with electricity consumption. Multivariate Granger causality test confirms unidirectional causal link running from Internet usage to economic growth and electricity consumption. The findings are robust across different econometric specifications. The findings imply that Australia is yet to achieve electricity efficiency gains from ICT expansion and that it may pursue energy conservation policy without any adverse effect on its economy. Australia needs to promote its existing carbon capture and storage facilities, significantly boost investment in the renewable energy sector, in particular, in solar energy and build nuclear power plants for electricity generation to reduce CO2 emissions. Also promoting green IT and IT for green might be potential means to curb environmental damage from Internet usage. A coordination between ICT policy, energy policy and growth policy is also recommended.

Is rapid growth in Internet usage environmentally sustainable for Australia? An empirical investigation

This study estimates the short- and long-run effects of Internet usage and economic growth on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions using annual time series macro data for Australia for the period 1985–2012. Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) bounds and Gregory–Hansen structural break cointegration tests are applied. ARDL estimates indicate no significant long-run relationship between Internet usage and CO2 emissions, which implies that the rapid growth in Internet usage is still not an environmental threat for Australia. The study further indicates that higher level of economic growth is associated with lower level of CO2 emissions; however, Internet usage and economic growth have no significant short-run relationship with CO2 emissions. Financial development has both short-run and long-run significant positive association with CO2 emissions. The findings offer support in favor of energy efficiency gains and a reduction in energy intensity in Australia. However, impulse response and variance decomposition analysis suggest that Internet usage, economic growth and financial development will continue to impact CO2 emissions in the future, and as such, this study recommends that in addition to the existing measures to combat CO2 emissions, Australia needs to exploit the potential of the Internet not only to reduce its own carbon footprint but also to utilize information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled emissions abatement potential to reduce emissions in various other sectors across the economy, such as, power, renewable energy especially in solar and wind energy, agriculture, transport and service.