ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF ICT INFRASTRUCTURE ON THE REGIONAL ECONOMY

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role in our lives. But how important are they for the region’s economy? Many researchers have looked at this problem from different angles; for developing countries the impact is clearly positive; for developed countries, in some cases, deterioration in economic indicators was noted, but first of all they tried to detect linear dependencies of the gross regional product (GRP) on ICT, but did not identify it. At the same time, in order to plan and forecast the development of the regional economy, it is necessary to take into account the impact of the development of ICT infrastructure with sufficient accuracy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nonlinear relationship between GRP and ICT. For this purpose, an integral indicator of ICT infrastructure was developed, including basic communication services: broadband Internet access, the number of Internet users per 100 people, the level of mobile penetration and telephone density, the number of wired telephone devices. Based on the standardization of the values of these indicators, an integral indicator of ICT infrastructure is proposed, which is the sum of the standardized values of four indicators. A model has been developed for the dependence of the GRP of the regions of the Russian Federation on the value of the integral indicator of ICT infrastructure based on a power function. The reliability and accuracy of the resulting model was assessed. A spatial analysis method was used to present the results. The difference between the regions of the Russian Federation in terms of GRP level is clearly presented. At the same time, there are no significant gaps in the level of ICT infrastructure. The results obtained can be applied to planning and forecasting the development of ICT, taking into account the promotion of the concept of Industry 4.0.

information and communication technologies / ICT, gross regional product / GRP, broadband Internet access / BBA, mobile penetration level, telephone density, digital divide, correlation analysis, regression analysis, spatial analysis, Industry 4.0

Boldanova E. V. Assessment of the impact of ICT infrastructure on the regional economy. Biznes. Obrazovanie. Pravo = Business. Education. Law. 2024;3(68):164—169. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2024.68.1094.