Can ICT Economically Catalyze a Regional GDP Per Capita Convergence?　− A Case Study of Major East Asian Countries −

ICT have played a significant role in the economic growth for developed and developing countries in the world and no region has been more dynamic in recent years than East Asia, which is one of the most important geographic regions based on ICT. In this point, firstly, historical background of major East Asian countries on ICT developments is given in this study by focusing on telecommunications sector. On the other hand, we examined Gross Domestic Product （GDP） per capita income distributions of major East Asian countries in our previous study and it is observed that there are some evidences for regional convergence as a weak Beta-convergence and a strong Sigma-convergence after 1992 within homogeneous regions of major East Asian countries. Even though there have been many important empirical and theoretical studies on GDP growth related with ICT in the literature, there is no specific focusing study on how ICT can affect GDP per capita convergence among countries and its correlations with GDP per capita growths within countries. For this reason, secondly, we used a sample equation for ICT developments for each country and analyzed the correlations of unit changes within countries according to the years that played an important part resulting in regional convergence in terms of Neoclassical Growth Model. As the methodology of the study, the multiple correlation coefficient （MCC） was used by indicating the standard coefficient of correlation. Also, multiple regression analysis of the study evaluated the value of the estimations on the dependent variables by using matrix data. Finally, as the findings it is observed that there is a remarkable correlation between GDP per capita growth and ICT developments of major East Asian Countries.