By Kartik Ganju, Paul Pavlou, and Rajiv Banker

1. Does Information and Communication
Technology Lead to the Well-Being of
Nations?
A Country-Level Empirical Investigation
KARTIK GANJU, PAUL PAVLOU, RAJIV BANKER

2. Introduction
Everything that we choose we choose for the sake of something
else— except happiness which is an end. –Aristotle
◦ ICT been shown to increase GDP and productivity of nations
◦ However, effects of ICT can go beyond impacts on income

3. Impacts of ICT
Social Capital and Social Equality: ICT can bring people together
and give a voice to those who would otherwise not have one
Health: Health information can be provided to underserved areas
via ICT
Education: Citizens can access MOOCs and other information via
ICT
Commerce: Citizens can access to information about markets to
get better prices
These impacts of ICT go beyond changes to GDP

4. Self-reported Well-being (SWB)
Colloquially known as happiness
Correlated with a judgment about one’s
overall life satisfaction
◦ Repeated measurements of SWB correlated
across time
◦ Higher well-being correlated with lower suicide
rates
◦ Correlated with biological measures (hormone
levels, immune systems, cardiovascular
measures)

5. Analysis
RESULTS
Use of ICT associated with an increase in the
well-being of a country
◦ Results hold even after accounting for levels of
GDP of the country
Using a biclustering approach, we find
◦ Countries with low levels of ICT increase well-
being from adoption of mobile telephones
◦ Countries in all layers have a positive and
significant effect of ICT on well-being
DATA SOURCES
Use Gallup World Poll for Well-being
Information
Data on ICT adoption from the World Bank
Use a fixed effects model
◦ Use the slope of the terrain as an instrument for
the cost of implementation of ICT metrics

6. Discussion
Effects of ICT go beyond impacts on Income
and GDP
Important for researchers to understand the
holistic impact of ICT
Different ICT systems can have different
impacts on well-being based on the type of
country – one size fits all approach may not
work

7. Thank You!