USE OF THE INTERNET BY THE ROMANIAN CITIZENS. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF DIGITAL GAPS BETWEEN REGIONS

• Main Authors: ANIELA BĂLĂCESCU, ANA-GABRIELA BABUCEA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academica Brâncuşi 2018-02-01
• Series: Analele Universităţii Constantin Brâncuşi din Târgu Jiu : Seria Economie
• Subjects: Digital Economy and Society Index; information and communication technologies; EU-28; Romania; regional level
• Online Access: http://www.utgjiu.ro/revista/ec/pdf/2018-01/11_Babucea.pdf

New IT technologies have generated changes in the economic and social system, and the rapidity with which countries adopt these technologies is essential for increasing economic and social competitiveness in the future. Thus, the measuring of ITC technologies integration in the economy and society is essential, and at the level of the EU-28 countries there is a Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) that shows how a country evolves digitally compared to others. The 2017 report shows significant disparities within the EU28 regarding digitization. Although Romania ranks 2nd in the EU28 for high-speed broadband subscriptions, it is ranked the last in the EU28 from the point of view of Internet usage. In this paper, we will limit to identifying the regions in Romania with the highest percentages of Internet usage and commenting on the main causes underpinning the regional gaps. The research method used was cluster analysis that identified 3 clusters in terms of Internet usage. The data source was Eurostat. The paper have 5 sections: the first two sections describe importance of ITC tehnologies in society and the conceptual framework of the DESI, the following two sections present the empirical results of the detailed explorative analysis regarding use of Internet for the EU28 countries, with accent on Romania, the methods applied, research hypothesis, variables and statistical data used in this paper and finally there are conclusions with main results of study.