The Socio-Economic Efficiency of Digital Government Transformation

ABSTRACT

The article is devoted to the understanding of digital government transformation (DGT) as key to improving public administration and governance. The paper complements the debate regarding DGT rationale in public administration, providing theoretical and empirical analysis of its socio-economic impact and performance in governance. The empirical part is based on two regression analyses exploring indicators of DGT and public administration performance. The article concludes that (1) DGT is understood as innovation, but innovation in the public sector is also commonly associated with DGT, (2) this innovation helps to reshape the governance to match the society’s needs, (3) the policy-based approach to DGT is not enough explanation of its rationale and efficiency, and (4) there are certain improvements in the socio-economic sphere that are related to DGT and thus help one understand its meaning for the contemporary world.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital government
• digital government transformation
• public governance
• innovation in the public sector
• socio-economic efficiency

Acknowledgments

The article was prepared within the framework of the Basic Research Program at HSE University. We are grateful to our colleagues for their comments and suggestions. We are also thankful to Galina Shabanova, student of the HSE Master’s Programme “Urban Development and Governance,” who greatly assisted with the empirical part of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the HSE University Basic Research Program.