Impact of access to ICT on regional economic growth in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This article examines the impact of access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in
organizations on regional economic growth in Kazakhstan. The main objective of the study is to compare
regions with high, medium and low levels of regional development. Data were collected for the period
2007-2018 for all 16 regions of the country. Internet access in organizations, the number of computers
and landlines were considered as ICT, and the main indicator of regional development was taken as the
gross regional product (GRP) of the regions of Kazakhstan. POLS (pooled ordinary least squared) – the
combined least squares method (for panel studies), FE (fixed effects) – the method with fixed effects, RE
(random effects) – the method with random effects, and IV (instrumental variables) – the method with
instrumental variables were used to create a regression model with high reliability. The region’s innovation
activity for the number of computers in organizations was adopted as an instrumental variable. The
article presents the results of a regression model with the division of regions with high, medium and low
development and their analysis. In addition, the results were presented for splitting into sub-periods of
2007-2013 and 2014-2018 years. Significant differences between groups of regions of Kazakhstan were
not revealed as a result of this study.