The Role of ICT for Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Analysis

The study conducts a country-level examination of the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on sustainable development. Sustainable development is an agenda that global countries are determined to achieve. The ubiquitous nature of ICT and the benefits it accrues make it an inevitable choice to address the sustainable development agenda of nations. The literature on the influence of ICT on sustainable development at a global level is scant and the available literature provides ambiguous results on the relationship. This study conceptualizes sustainable development as three dimensions—economic, social and environment and supports the contention using secondary panel data analysis. A dataset comprises of 80 countries during the years 2000–2016. A Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation method helps in understanding the simultaneous relationship of ICT with the three described dimensions. To explore the relationship further, mediation analysis was conducted to understand the relationship of ICT with each dimension of sustainable development in the presence of the other dimensions. The results indicate that ICT has a significant positive influence on the dimensions of sustainable development of a nation. However, further examination with the mediation analysis reveals that ICT has a strong influence on the economic dimension and the spillover effects from economic dimension result in the realization of environmental and societal dimension of sustainable development. The results indicate that the unprecedented diffusion of ICT across remotest countries of the world is a ray of hope to address the agenda of sustainable development. However, the utmost attention must be taken to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development. The policy makers need to keep a critical eye on the environmental dimension and develop policies that incentivize the use of environmentally friendly technologies to ensure minimal or no impact on the environment and thereby ensure ICT as a catalyst for sustainable development.