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| Contributor | Chantal Kegels, Mary van Overbeke, Willem Van Zandweghe, Belgian Federal Planning Bureau |
| Title of paper | ICT contribution to economic performance in Belgium: preliminary evidence |
| Abstract | ICT have played an important role in the recent revival of productivity growth in United States, partly explaining the length of the expansionary phase of the cycle. The main objective of our project is to analyse the relative situation of the Belgian economy in order to elaborate economic policy recommendations. The first step of the project was devoted to the collect of the required statistical indicators to assess the relative position of the Belgian economy in terms of ICT production and diffusion. This database, containing more than 220 variables classified in 10 chapters, is now available to compare our country with its European partners, the United States and Japan. This database has been the main source of the report entitled ICT production and diffusion in Belgium (March 2002). In a second stage, the analysis is centred on the evaluation of the contribution of ICT to the Belgian economic performances during the last decade. This analysis is conducted both at the macroeconomic level and at the branch level. The paper, The macroeconomic impact of ICT in Belgium: First results (March 2002), estimates the contribution of ICT capital to output growth in the business sector during the period 1980-2000 and the role of ICT in the average labour productivity growth acceleration since 1996. Here again, the accent is put on the assessment of the relative situation of the Belgian economy in regards with the other European countries and the United States. Further efforts are oriented to the improvement of the construction of ICT stock of capital. Using a branch level analysis, the other part of the study tries to establish a link between the ICT diffusion, the productivity developments and the economic growth during the period 1995-1999. Despite the lack of detailed data, the paper, ICT, Productivity and Economic Growth: Preliminary Evidences for Belgium (September 2001), shows differences in the effects of ICT investment on productivity and employment growth between sectors. Another paper, currently in elaboration, tries to resolve some of the statistical shortfalls and to better identify the ICT user sectors by using a more detailed branch classification (60 sectors). At the same time, this paper extends the previous analysis by comparing the effects of ICT on productivity and employment, recorded in Belgium with those observed in other European countries. In the next months, the research will be devoted to the identification of the determinants of the differences in the effects of ICT on productivity and employment, at both the macroeconomic and branch level. In addition, in order to better understand the process of ICT diffusion inside sectors, four sectors will be deeply studied by surveys at enterprises level. This study is the Belgian part of the EBIP project of the OECD. |
| Full document | ICT contribution to economic performance in Belgium: preliminary evidence |
This page last revised: Friday, 7 June 2002
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