Innovation and Economic Development : The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies in Latin America

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are spreading fast across Latin America and the Caribbean. This trend has brought about important economic and social changes, which have largely gone unmeasured until recently. Here, analysts from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) along with other distinguished scholars in the field of ICT, growth and productivity provide theoretical and empirical insights to the debate on the role of ICT in economic development. This book is the fruit of the research ECLAC has amassed, with ten chapters detailing the great strides that have been made of late in ICT. A distinguishing feature of this book is its multi-disciplinary approach to measuring the economic effects of these technologies, which incorporates the neo-classical growth accounting approach and the evolutionary-structuralist approach. These approaches are noteworthy because, much like the primary message of ECLAC, they exemplify the pivotal importance of technical progress, productivity and structural transformation in economic growth. Innovation and Economic Development identifies several opportunities and challenges for bringing about a more dynamic role of ICT in the process of structural change and productivity growth and contends that accelerating the adoption and efficient use of ICT is essential to any strategy for further success. Policymakers, entrepreneurs, students and scholars of ICT, development and economics, and other social actors who have raised concerns about the contribution of ICT to economic growth and productivity in Latin America are sure to have their questions answered and their perspectives broadened by this discerning work.