The Economic Impact of Digital Technologies offers a profoundly illuminating examination of ICT transformations in Europe and its critical role in greater social inequality. It presents scholars and policy makers with original and practical tools to benchmark and assess the ICT diffusion and inclusion process. The core message of book is that a coherent European strategy for embedding ICT technologies in society is long overdue.
Social differences in ICT use persist and are in some cases widening, yet despite this fact there is a dearth of research on remedying digital inequalities. This is of particular importance given that relative levels of ICT use, investment and research can often explain variations in economic performance between industrialized countries. The purpose of this book is to fill the gap in the literature by presenting key evidence on the economic benefits (and costs) deriving from investment in an inclusive information society. The authors propose indicators and indexes of digital development and e-Inclusion (and its flip-side e-exclusion) to assess the relationship between inclusive ICT and wider economic and social performance in Europe.


Presenting the methodology to monitor countries' performance and ICT use, together with original measures and policy suggestions, this book will be indispensable to policy makers, scholars and postgraduate students in a variety of areas including economic growth, innovation, industrial and organizational studies, information and technology, European studies, and public and social policy.


Contents: Preface Introduction 1. Digital Development in Europe: A Theoretical Framework 2. The Internet in Everyday Life 3. A Metrics for Digital Development 4. Digital Inequalities in Europe 5. The Economic Impact of e-Inclusion: A Review of the Literature 6. The Economic Impact of Digital Technologies: An Empirical Analysis on European Countries 7. The Impact of e-Inclusion in Europe: A Scenario Analysis 8. Digital Development: An Overall EU Policy Framework Appendix: EDDI European Digital Development Index: Definition of Methodology References Index


With contributions from: Marco Bee, Sara Bentivegna, Giovanni Di Franco, Giuseppe Espa, Rinaldo Evangelista, Roberto Gabriele, Paolo Guerrieri, Valentina Meliciani and Jacques Pelkmans