Abstract A growing number of case studies and reports suggest that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play an important role in fighting against deforestation, and the penetration of ICT help decrease deforestation in a different part of world’s forests. The aim of this study is to test whether diffusion of ICT contributes to decreasing in deforestation in the world. For this purpose, the effect of ICT penetration on deforestation is estimated by using bivariate and multivariate fixed time effect models. In the sample selection process, those countries having 2% or more forest area as a percentage of total land area we included in our analysis. The largest sample includes 174 countries. The period under study is between 1991 and 2012. It is found that ICT penetration is significantly and negatively associated with deforestation. The results are robust to the inclusion of a number of control variables as well as different indicators of ICT penetration and deforestation as such all available four ICT indicators and two deforestation indicators are used. To avoid potential spurious regression problems in the analyses, the original models are re-estimated by using the stationary forms of all independent and dependent variables. A strong negative correlation between ICT indicators and deforestation indicators is also supported by the findings of re-estimated bivariate and multivariate models. Empirical evidence at the macro level provided in this paper confirms the results mentioned in the case studies.

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ICT渗透对森林砍伐的影响：面板数据证据

摘要越来越多的案例研究和报告表明，信息通信技术（ICT）在抵御森林砍伐方面发挥着重要作用，而ICT的普及有助于减少世界不同地区的森林砍伐。这项研究的目的是检验ICT的传播是否有助于减少世界上的森林砍伐。为此，通过使用双变量和多变量固定时间效应模型来估算ICT渗透对森林砍伐的影响。在样本选择过程中，我们将森林面积占总土地面积的2％或更多的国家纳入我们的分析。最大的样本包括174个国家。研究期为1991年至2012年。发现ICT的渗透与森林砍伐有显着负相关。结果对于包含许多控制变量以及ICT渗透率和毁林率的不同指标是可靠的，因此使用了所有可用的四个ICT指标和两个毁林率指标。为了避免分析中潜在的虚假回归问题，通过使用所有独立变量和因变量的平稳形式来重新估计原始模型。重新估计的双变量和多变量模型的发现也支持了ICT指标与森林砍伐指标之间的强烈负相关。本文提供的宏观经验证据证实了案例研究中提到的结果。