Growth, Information and Communication Technologies and Regional Disparities

This paper provides a brief review to the issues of ICT, growth and digital divide that are analysed in the remainder of this SDA project. In the remainder of the project, we measure the impact of ICT on growth (see Biagi, 2004). Secondly, we investigate whether ICT produce new sources of differences among social groups, regions and countries increasing the North-South, East-West or core-periphery dichotomy. In particular we study how differences in ICT access, endowment and use (known in literature as digital divide) may account for differences in productivity. On this theme we produce two papers. The first one analyses whether digital divide can cause an increase in income disparities and, more generally, in the quality of life among people, regions and countries (see Biagi and Riggi, 2004). The second one focuses on the optimal policies aimed at reducing the digital divide and regional disparities, boosting at the same time productivity growth (see Alderighi, 2004).