Investigating the Short-Term and Long-Term Relationship of Information and Communication Technology and Economic Growth in Iran's Provinces

There is a difference between the relationship between ICT and economic growth. One hypothesis is that the development of information and communication technology (ICT) leads to increased economic growth, and the other hypothesis considers economic growth as an effective factor in the development of information and communication technology. In addition to these two hypotheses, a third hypothesis is also proposed, according to which ICT and economic growth has a two-way causality relationship The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between ICT development and economic growth in Iran's entire provinces.. This study uses panel error correction model and panel co integration and causality tests to investigate short run and long run relationship between ICT and Economic growth in Iran’s province in the time period of 2010- 2015. Long run and short run coefficients estimation have done by using Dynamic Ordinary Least Square, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square and Pooled Mean Group respectively. The results of this study indicate that there is a the bidirectional causality between economic growth and ICT (all three components of ICT development) in the short term in the whole of Iran, but in the long run there is a one-way relationship from the development index Information and communication technology and its components contribute to economic growth.