Research Papers in Economics,
Stockholm University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper evaluates the global diffusion process for three ICT technologies: cellular telephony, Internet and personal computers to test the hypothesis that the difference between countries in institutional characteristics significantly affects the time to adoption of these technologies. The analysis shows that the quality of economic and financial institutions and, to a smaller degree political institutions, significantly affects the time to adoption of the studied ICT technologies. The institutional effects were not uniform during all stages of adoption and for all three technologies but the level effects were on average found to be of the same magnitude as those of education and GDP per capita. The results are robust also when controlled for a number of other possible determinants of productivity and growth as well as fixed country effects.

Keywords: Barriers to technology adoption; Institutions; Technology diffusion

JEL-codes: O33

41 pages, First version: March 31, 2006. Revised: May 3, 2007.

Note: New and revised verison

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