Regional aspects of studying the digital economy in the system of economic growth drivers

Abstract

Scientific thought is constantly looking for new sources and drivers of economic development and growth. In this regard, the digital economy becomes a buzzword as a major endogenous factor stimulating economic activity of a country and its regions. Therefore, its emergence, development, and measurement become high on the agenda. The paper summarises theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of the digital economy as the major driver boosting the regional economy. The methodological basis of the research rests on the contributions by Bukht and Heeks, the English scholars of the Global Development Institute, who introduced a three-scope approach to understanding the digital economy. The research team also draws on the method to compute the business digitalisation index developed by the Russian scholars of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. As a result of the research the authors propose their method for calculating the composite indicator of the regional economy digitalisation and test it on the Ural macroregion. The method uses a set of 12 specific indicators which shows how deep the digital economy and digital technologies have spread into the region. The study revealed the following distinctive features of the digital economy developing in the subjects of the Russian Federation constituting the Ural macroregion: significant differentiation of the digitalisation levels across the subjects; finished primary stage of the digitalisation process; dissimilar potential for the digital economy development among the subjects; correlation between the level of the regional economy digitalisation and economic growth.