Microeconomic and macroeconomic overview of ICT as a primary driver behind the digital economy

Widespread implementation and ubiquitous beneficial impact of ICT technologies is often praised as a decisive factor demarcating the frontier between “old” (classical), and “new” models of digital economies. However, exact quantitative analysis of such impact on a micro and macro level shows some surprising results. No unique conclusions could be applied to all countries and in all timespans. ICT technologies are subject to the law of diminishing returns more than any other, their impact is notoriously difficult to measure and carries a number of hidden and sunk costs and transfer effects. Furthermore, there is a distinctive difference in yields derived from ICT technologies in national economies depending on their use or development and production. On a microeconomic level of a single company, only investments in those ICT technologies that aim to preserve and increase value of the information capital can be economically justified. In this paper, the authors will research and elaborate the impact of implementation of ICT technologies on the corporate level and aggregate measures of national economies.