The effect of information and communication technology on competitiveness of the Czech economy

The advance of information and communication technology speeds up year by year. At the same time, methodologies for objective measurement of the benefits of ICTs are still lacking behind. This difference then forms a void of unsatisfied information requirements about the state of ICTs from a business as well as national economy's point of view. This thesis summarizes theoretical background about possible ways of viewing and measuring ICT benefits (be that benefits for a person, society as a whole or economy as a whole). The practical part of the thesis analyzes data describing the state of ICT sector in the Czech economy. The first part looks at ways of measuring ICT benefits as they are seen by a number of other authors and described in many studies. This provides a summary of the possibilities to consider when looking at our topic. The second part uses conclusions from previous works on similar topics to set some recommendations for policy improvement as well as social development that will enable maximizing the achieved utility of ICTs. Third part evaluates the position of ICT sector in the Czech Republic by analyzing basic statistical data about the economic and employment impact of all ICT firms as a whole. This is compared to other sectors of the Czech economy. Last part provides a detailed description of the process to calculate output and employment multipliers for all the sectors of Czech economy and then calculates these values according to the process. In the end, there is a summary of the theoretical and practical findings described in all preceding chapters