The digital divide and the approaches to its assessment. International dimension

Abstract

The modern economy is characterized by is characterized by in creased role of the new technologies based on Industry 4.0 which significantly improve the efficiency of production. The rise in the level of informatisation, digitalisation of society and digital skills is essential for states in their internal policies, since in combination those factors are creating the digital environment that is necessary for the exploitation of more and more complex technologies and the creation of new ones, improving the country’s competitive position on the world stage. The purpose of the article is to study the existing approaches to the assessment of the digital divide, analyze and define a set of criteria for the economic analysis of the digital divide, which to the right extent reflects the economic aspect of such phenomenon for inter-country comparisons. The methodological basis of the research is based on the structural-functional method, which made it possible to identify the main elements defining the essence of the digital divide; historical and logical methods, which were used for analyzing the development of theories forming the conceptual basis for the digital divide. The conducted analysis in the development of theoretical concepts related to the information society, technological gap and digital divide leads to the conclusion that the current approaches to the assessment of the digital divide are based to a greater extent on the instruments of sociological research. The author suggests an approach to the analysis of the digital divide that combines indicators of the digital environment, digital economy and digital sovereignty and is based on the four groups of indicators: access to the Internet, the readiness of the population to use digital technologies effectively, the level of business digitalisation, digital potential.