No. 12

Mas, Matilde (2006), Infrastructures and ICT: Measurement Issues and Impact on Economic Growth, (December 2006)

The paper revises the impact of infrastructures and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on economic growth. It takes Spain as a reference case due to the accessibility to capital services estimates. The Spanish database allows the measurement of the impact on growth of three ICT assets (software, hardware and communication) and six different types of infrastructures (roads, railways, airports, ports, as well as urban and water infrastructures). As a first step, the paper recommends the adjustment of the National Accounts (NA) figures. The rationale for the adjustment relies on the need to recognize explicitly the services provided by public capital, not fully included in NA. However, the results show that the methodological differences related to government services flows are not quantitatively important as they give very similar estimates in terms of the pace of economic growth in Spain.