• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper empirically investigates the relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) goods imports and economic growth with a focus on the 13 Asia-Pacific economies during 2005-2016. In particular, this paper extends the study by breaking down the data of Asia-Pacific countries into High Income Countries (HICs) and Low Income Countries (LICs) according to the difference of income levels. Design/methodology - Our empirical model employs the standard growth model based on the Barro (1998)-type growth framework. Using static panel-data technique, we estimate the effect of ICT goods imports on economic growth in the 13 Asia-Pacific economies. In addition, we also estimate a difference of the ICT goods imports-economic growth link between HICs and LICs. Findings -The estimation results indicate that ICT goods import has a significant positive effect on economic growth, while ICT goods export has a positive but statistically insignificant effect on it. When we break down the panel data into HICs and LICs in order to gain further insight, ICT goods imports has been effective in spurring growth in only LICs but not in HICs. The other supplementary results show that both domestic investment (GCF) and life expectancy (LE) have a significantly positive impact on economic growth in both HICs and LICs. Originality/value - The main findings of the paper suggest that ICT goods imports has a positive effect on economic growth in only LICs but not in HICs. This result supports the so-called 'leapfrogging' hypothesis through ICT goods imports in the Asia-Pacific countries, in which LICs are gaining more from ICT goods imports than HICs.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.107-127
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• 2017

This paper aims to analyze comparing the international competitiveness of Korea and China of ICT 10 goods in ASEAN Big 6 countries.(Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines). In this study, we investigate major trends in Korea's ICT goods through various data analysis and evaluate. From 2009 to 2016, As analyzed by ESI, CTB, and EMS, This paper showed Korea has increased its export, EMS and Export Competitiveness to ASEAN. However, due to rapid imports, the trade balance deteriorated and ESI decreased. China showed signs of improvement in international competitiveness, although exports, ESI and EMS were declining. Compared to South Korea, China has seen less export bias to ASEAN. ASEAN is becoming an increasingly important trade partner in Korea's ICT exporting. This paper points out several policy implications drawn from its analyses and findings.