The Essay On ICT Development's Impacts On Australia's Economic Growth.

This is an individual, written assessment, to be completed in report format. You are required to write excluding title page, preliminaries, tables, figures, reference list and appendices. The report requires in-text referencing and a full reference list in APA style, with evidence that you have critically read and integrated a minimum of 20 suitable scholarly references.

The purpose of this assessment is to present the final report of the Professional Project you proposed in Assignment 1. This report should build upon both components of your Assessment 1 and it should be developed with the help of the tutor/co-ordinator feedback.

In order to successfully complete Assessment 2, you are required to carry out the investigation you have proposed in Assessment 1 and produce a professional research report that shows that you have followed through from finding a research question to answering that question and developing recommendations that arise from your findings. The report will follow the typical structure of a research report and will need to include the following:

Project title
Introduction (which must include some justification of your topic and your project's aim and research question(s))
Critical literature review
A detailed presentation of how you carried out your project (commensurate with a 'Methods' chapter)
Findings from your secondary data analysis
Discussion of findings in light of your previously reviewed literature
Conclusion, including recommendations and limitations

The global economic framework has developed considerably, over the years and the same has also become substantially integrated, inclusive and dynamic, with the establishment of what is known to be a global marketplace, much of which can be attributed to the international phenomena like Globalisation, trade liberalisations as well as to the technological and infrastructural developments across the globe (Martin, 2017).

One of the primary developments in the global technological framework, is that of the growth of the information technology and specifically one of the extensions of the same, known as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which has gained immense popularity and applicability over the years (Law, Buhalis&Cobanoglu, 2014). The term, broadly refers to the technologies which are used for accessing information through telecommunication, especially by the usage of cell phones, wireless networks and other mediums of communication.

Keeping this into consideration, the concerned research tries to examine the effects of the development of the ICT framework and extensive investments on the same on the overall economic growth of Australia, especially in terms of the indicators of economic growth, mainly the Gross Domestic Product and Employment in the country, taking into consideration the fact that like other developed economies, the government of Australia has also been investing in the development of the ICT framework and implementing the same in different aspects, like health, education, industries and others.

As discussed in the above section, over the years, the ICT industry, itself has grown impressively and consistently, in terms of its applicability and importance in different industries and in different activities of human life, much of which can be attributed to the development of technologies like internet, which has made global communication easier and faster.

Figure 1: Growth in the ICT manufacturing and services in the OECD countries (2000-2009)

(Source: Data.oecd.org, 2018)

The value added of the ICT sector in different countries and the distribution of the same in the distribution and manufacturing sector of the different countries in the OECD, over the years, can be seen to be as follows:

Figure 2: ICT service and manufacturing in OECD countries

(Source: Data.oecd.org, 2018)

In Australia also the same has increased substantially, as can be seen from the increase in the number of internet users in the country, as can be seen from the following figure:

Figure 3: Number of internet users in Australia over the years

Methods

(Source: Oecd.org, 2018)

This, in turn has resulted in implementation of ICT in different aspects in the country, especially in the industrial sectors, where the operational frameworks have undergone immense changes, affecting the performance of the industries, which in turn, is expected to have impacts on the overall growth of the economy of the country.

With the implementation of ICT technologies in commercial frameworks, the operational activities of the industries are expected to be influenced by the same, which in turn, can have impacts on the employment dynamics of the country, the impacts being both positive as well as negative. On the other hand, the development of ICT as an industry itself can also have considerable impacts on the economic conditions of the country (Bloom et al., 2014). Thus, the concerned research can be seen to be holding considerable significance as the same intends to see the economic impacts of development and increased implementation of ICT, in one of the globally dominant economies, economy of Australia.

The primary aim of the research to analyse the impacts of development of ICT in Australia on the overall economic aspects of the country, especially in terms of their contribution on GDP and employment in the country. The research also aims to find out the advantages as well as limitations of consistent increase in implementation and development of ICT, based on the findings of the data.

The objectives of the concerned study are as follows:

• To analyse the growth of ICT framework in Australia over the years
• To examine the impacts of ICT development on employment scenario in Australia over the years
• To analyse the impacts of ICT service development on economic growth of Australia
• To determine the future prospects of ICT and recommend solutions regarding mitigations of limitations of the same

The primary research question which the research aims to address is as follows:

What roles do the development of the ICT framework in Australia play, on the overall economic growth and overall economic conditions of the country?

The secondary research questions based on the primary question are as follows:

1. How has the investment on ICT developed in Australia over the years?
2. How does ICT contribute in GDP growth of the country?
3. How does ICT influence the employment scenario in the country?

Introduction

The ICT as an industry as well as a catalyst in industrial operations and a component in the lifestyle of the households across the world, have been developing considerably over the years and there remain considerable literary works and empirically evidenced scholarly papers, in the global scenario, regarding the significance and the implications of the same in different aspects, especially in the economic aspects of the countries. This section of the study, takes this into consideration and tries to conduct an extensive review of the existing literatures in these domains.

Information and Communication Technology: Definition

Wolfram (2012), defines the aspect of ICT as an extension of the broad domain of information technology, which emphasises on unified communication framework development for the purpose of faster and more efficient handling of information across the globe. Ishida (2015), in this context, asserts that the ICT framework helps the users to access, transfer, store and manipulate information regarding different aspects of their life, both personal and professional. As can be seen in the assertions of Abdulgalimov (2014), over the years, the ICT framework has developed immensely and has implications on aspects like education, employment, economic growth and other aspects of different countries across the globe.

Findings

Significance of ICT in contemporary period

There exist different perceptions and opinions of authors regarding the importance of Information and Communication Technology development and the increasing usage of the same in different aspects in countries across the globe. Maryska, Doucek&Kunstova (2012), in this context, highlight several general importance of the same in a generalised framework, the primary ones being as follows:

• As per the assertions of the authors, the primary significance of implementation of ICT development is that the same makes processing of information highly efficient and time-saving, thereby also leading to reduction of costs of information processing.
• Nijkamp& Cohen-Blankshtain (2013), in this context, argue that post Globalisation, with the increasing interactions of people with one another across the globe, the development and increased implementation of ICT in different aspects help in easy and effective human interaction in a much cheaper and economically viable manner.
• As put forward by Ramos& Rodrigues (2013), the implementation and increased usage of ICT in different aspects, including business and commercial activities, lead to more efficient and timely transaction of vital information, which in turn increases the smoothness in business operations, specifically in a period where more and more businesses are going global (Michaels, Natraj& Van Reenen, 2014).
• Higón (2012), asserts that the increased implementation of ICT helps in increasing innovations in different aspects, thereby contributing to the overall increased welfare of the people across the world.
• Yadav& Mehta (2014), in their research paper highlight that the increasing usage of ICT does not only help in development of the operational framework of the industries, but also help in different other aspects of human life, including health, education and similar domains.

Importance of ICT on economies of the countries

According to Jin& Cho (2015), the implementation of ICT frameworks in different domains like those of industrial operations, health, education and other aspects, have considerably significant impacts on the overall conditions of the economies of the countries across the globe. Their assertions, can be seen to be supported by many literary works, of which one of the most significant work is that of the elaborate research paper of Gallego, Gutiérrez&Lee (2014), where the authors argue that with the implementation of ICT in different domains, a lot of cost and time are saved in the operations, especially in those of the business activities, which in turn, increases the output as well as efficiencies of the industries. On the other hand, ICT also facilitates provision of education and health care more efficiently and cost-effectively to greater number of people (Acs, de Groot& Nijkamp, 2013).

Impacts of ICT on employment scenario

There exist mixed perceptions regarding impacts of ICT on employment. While Tarut?&Gatautis (2014), argue that ICT development creates new employment scopes, especially for the skilled and trained individuals and also help in expansion of industrial activities, thereby creating more jobs, Cardona, Kretschmer& Strobel (2013), assert that the same also leads to automation, which in turn results in loss of many jobs, especially those of the subsistence ones, thereby leading to unemployment in the economies.

Literature Gap

The existing literatures do not robustly indicate towards the exact contribution patterns of the ICT frameworks in the economic conditions and the bottlenecks prevailing in this aspect as well as the ways these can be addressed. The concerned research tries to address these gaps.

Introduction

For any research to be robust and productive, it is important to have a proper and relevant research methodological framework, which, for the concerned research is discussed as follows.

Research Philosophy

Interpretivism philosophy has been adopted for the research, considering the aim of the research of that of explaining the roles played by ICT in the economic growth of Australia, with the help of interpretation of the evidences and trends present (Neuman, 2013).

Discussion

Research Approach

The research takes the Inductive Approach, where on the basis of data collected and analysed, inferences are drawn about the relationship of ICT development with that of the economic aspects of Australia.

Research Design

An exploratory research design is implemented for the concerned research in order to study in-depth the quantitative evidences as well as the qualitative attributed and reasonings behind those occurrences (Neuman, 2013).

Data Collection

For the purpose of the concerned research secondary quantitative data on different economic aspects of Australia (GDP and employment) have been collected from the statistical archives of World Bank for the last few years and the data on the ICT investments and ICT exports in Australia, over the same period, have been collected from OECD archives (Panneerselvam, 2014).

Data Analysis

The data collected have been analysed using the statistical software platform, MS Excel, where the correlation and regression analysis have been done to examine the roles of ICT on the economic conditions of the concerned country.

Ethical Consideration

The research has been conducted abiding by the ethical norms associated with research. The data has been collected from authentic and reliable sources and the results of the analysis has been unbiasedly interpreted to remain true to the purpose of the research (Greenfield, 2016).

Introduction:

This section will analyse statistical data related to Australia’s annual GDP growth trend along with employment, export of ICT good and ICT investment with the help of regression analysis and appropriate diagram. The ultimate outcome will provide relationship between GDP growth rate and exports of ICT good to describe that how Australia’s GDP has changed over the year by exporting ICT goods. The analysis will also focus on the relationship between investment in ICT and employment of this country to understand that how investment has affected employment growth over time.

Impact of ICT good exports on GDP growth of Australia:

Table 1: Regression Analysis:

The study has conducted a regression analysis through considering export of ICT goods as independent variable and annual GDP growth rate of this country as dependent variable. The value of coefficient is almost 0.00 while P- value also represents insignificant. This implies that export of ICT export has not affected Australia’s annual GDP growth between 2000 and 2012.

Table 2: Correlation coefficient

Table 2 also represents that correlation between these two variables are 0.015, which implies that export of ICT products has almost negligible impact on Australia’s GDP growth.

Conclusion

Figure 4: GDP growth (annual %) of Australia

Source: (Data.worldbank.org, 2018)

The above figure represents that annual GDP growth of Australia has fluctuated drastically between 2000 and 2012. Between 2008 and 2009, this rate has declined from almost 3.66 percent to 1.92.

Figure 5: ICT Good export in Australia

Source: (theOECD, 2018)

Figure 5 represents the trend of ICT good exports of Australia between 2000 and 2012.

Impact of ICT investment on employment of Australia:

Table 3: Regression analysis

Table 3 represents negative coefficient between ICT investment and employment in Australia. This analysis implies that 1 unit of extra investment can reduce employment by 0.41 proportion. The P-value in this analysis in 0.014 and this is less than 0.05. Thus, relationship between two variables in this context represents significant. This implies that increase change in investment in ICT products leads employment in an opposite direction.

Table 4: Correlation coefficient

Table 4 also represents negative relation between investment in ICT product and employment in Australia between 1991 and 2008.

Figure 6: Employment to population ratio in Australia

Source: (Data.worldbank.org, 2018)

Figure 3 represents the trend of employment to population ratio considering entire work force starting from age 15 an onwards. This figure represents decline in employment at a slower rate since 1991. Between 1991 and 2005, this trend represents almost stable ratio while after GFC this has started to decline at a slower rate.

Figure 7: Investment in ICT in Australia

Source: (theOECD, 2018)

Figure 4 states that investment in ICT reduced continuously between 2000 and 2008. In 2000, it reached at a highest point though after that it started to fall continuously.

The above analysis represents that, other economic sectors have comparatively strong influence on the GDP growth of this county significantly by exporting their products. The global financial crisis (GFC) could not influence economic condition of this country significantly. However, the world economy affected adversely during this period and this in turn negatively influenced exports of this country. As a result, GDP growth has decreased over that period. From the next year, the economy started to recover its economic condition again. The trend of ICT good exports represents almost a positive one over the period with almost stable rate. However, after 2008, export of this product decreased due to the indirect impact of GFC. This is because, other ICT importing countries reduced overall imports of products and services during this period. The study also considers other regression analysis between investment in ICT and employment in Australia during 1991 and 2008. According to this outcome, it can be stated that industries replaced their employees with ICT and consequently many people lost their jobs during this time. However, it is essential to state that the entire analysis considered data up to 2008. However, the world economy experienced drastic changes afterward due to GFC, which further affected Australia’s employment indirectly. From this outcome, it can be stated that industries have switched to ICT based activities and this in turn has reduced the ratio of employed person over the total population after GFC. However, the entire analysis experiences some limitations regarding unavailability of data. The study collects data from secondary sources, where present data for some variables are not available. Hence, the entire analysis cannot cover recent impact of ICT on GDP growth and employment of Australia.

Recommendations

Conclusion:

The entire chapter has analysed and discussed statistical data related to annual GDP growth of Australia along with the country’s employment to under the impact of ICT on these sectors. Hence, a regression analysis has been done on GDP growth and exports of ICT products. However, the ultimate outcome does not provide any relation between these two variables and this implies that ICT has not possessed contribution on GDP growth of this country. The chapter also conducts a regression analysis between employment and investment in ICT. The outcome represents that employment has decreased over the year in this country while investment also has decreased up to 2008. Thus, the entire research has experienced limitations regarding unavailability of present data.

The entire study has discussed about the role of ICT on Australian economy. For this, the study has focused on overall economic aspects regarding the contribution on GDP growth and employment of this country. For this, the paper has discussed on some research objectives to analyse the growth of ICT in Australian economy over the year. The entire study has successfully addressed all objectives. The outcome points out that ICT plays significant role on overall economic growth in Australia. ICT investment decreased during GFC. However, the study cannot analysis investment on ICT after this situation due to unavailability of data. The overall employment also has decreased over the year and this in turn states that Australian industries have replaced their employments with ICT. As a result, many people have lost their job till 2017 due to increasing use of ICT. On the contrary, the analysis states that ICT has not influenced Australia’s GDP growth between 2000 and 2012. This implies that GDP of this country has increased by exporting products of other sectors.

Limitations:

The study has used regression analysis and statistical diagram for analysing the impact if ICT on GDP growth and employment on Australia’s economy. However, the entire study has experienced some limitations based on data. Most of the data do not cover recent trend and consequently it becomes difficult to state the present implications of ICT on Australian economy. The study also experiences time limitations and for this, it cannot cover all aspects of the country’s economy to describe the impact of ICT more precisely.

Future prospects:

The study takes GDP growth and employment as two chief economic sectors for discussing the role of ICT on Australia’s economic growth. Hence, other researchers can consider other economic sectors to understand about the actual implication of ICT on economy. Moreover, the entire data analysis has been conducted on old data. Thus, new researchers can be done on current data to understand the present implication of ICT on Australian economy.

Limitations

References

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