Digital Inequalities

Abstract

The proliferation of digital technologies in most countries brings significant benefits from their use. These so-called digital dividends have a positive impact on economic growth, widening the scope for socio-economic development. However, their unequal distribution across countries makes digital technologies not equally beneficial to all countries and entities, and is gradually deepening the digital divide resulting in a gap in terms of between-countries income inequalities. These can be afterwards translated into other socioeconomic characteristics of the countries. In the paper, we evaluate the digitization level of EU countries within the panel of 62 world’s countries. Using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, we examine the extent to which unequal distribution of digital readiness across countries translates into the level of their economic performance. At the same time, we identify potential digital enhancements to bring the country closer to efficiency

Keywords

• digital inequalities
• socio-economic development
• data envelopment analysis
• economic growth