E-Government Development—A Key Factor in Government Administration Effectiveness in the European Union

Abstract

The phenomenon of digitisation of the public sector is an irreversible process that affects both the way public institutions are organised and the communication relationships between people and institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic represented a challenge and a strong impetus in accelerating the digitisation process of public administration at the global level such that it is currently difficult to make a clear distinction between governance and e-governance. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of the intensification of the digitisation process of public services in increasing the efficiency of governments at the level of the member states of the European Union, based on a cluster analysis. A robust least squares regression method was used to estimate the effects of the three dimensions of the e-government development index (EGDI) on government effectiveness. The results of the analysis highlighted the fact that the skills of the population in using online services determine the increase in a double percentage of government efficiency in intensively digitised states compared to states where the digitisation of public services is less developed. The development of the telecommunications infrastructure also has a significant positive impact on the efficiency of the government. However, online services offered by public authorities have proven to negatively influence government efficiency in both clusters.