The Relationship between Natural Disasters, Education, ICT and Economic Growth:Empirical Evidence from ARDL Bounds Testing Approach

Abstract

This document examines the nexus between natural disasters (DMS), education (EDU), information and communication technologies (ICT) and economic growth (GDP per capita) in developed and developing countries using panel data set from 1990 to 2017. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and Granger causality test was used. Firstly, the ARDL estimation suggests a positive and statistical significant relationship between education, internet users and mobile cellular telephone and GDP per capita in both the short- and long-term. Natural disasters have a negative effect on economic growth and education. The result indicates that internet users and mobile cellular telephone has a positive effect on natural disasters and education. Secondly, Granger causality reveals that there is bidirectional relationship among education and GDP per capita. Results show a unidirectional from internet users, mobile cellular telephone to natural disaster. In addition, there is a unidirectional causal relationship from natural disaster to GDP per capita in developing country, but this result is unobservable in developed country.