“…Our main explanatory variables are data showing Internet infrastructure taken from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, 2021) database. The control variables were selected in accordance with the theory of economic growth and the results of previous empirical research, i.e., variables that have been identified as statically significant for economic growth in previous studies: economic openness, government expenditure, investments, inflation, and government effectiveness (Afonso, 2022; Azam & Khan, 2022; Barro, 2013;Bergh & Henrekson, 2016;Chang, Kaltani & Loayza, 2009;Gupta, Stander & Vaona, 2023;Röthel & Leschke, 2023). Detailed information about the data is provided in Table 1 (p. 125).…”