In this paper, we empirically analyzed how the variation of the circumstantial level in information and communication has affected international trades using panel regression analysis among 32 OECD countries between 2000 and 2007. We estimated the index of each variable by grouping circumstantial variables into wired (PSDN), wireless (mobile) and internet communication. As wired communication has been replaced by wireless communication, wired communication showed a negative (–) influence, whereas wireless and internet communications showed a positive (+) influence in terms of growth of the total amount of trade. However, we confirmed that information trends such as electronic trades do not have large impacts on the trade because the index of wireless communication is higher than internet communication for most countries. Nonetheless, we found that information and communication environments have bigger impacts on the trade in developed countries with heavier dependencies on foreign outsourcing. The influence of the information and communication environments is statistically meaningful when we expanded from G7 countries to include newly developed countries such as those in the G20.

information and communication environments, trade, OECD countries, panel regression, wired, wireless, internet index.