Development of Russia’s digital economy: factors and regional differences

In the context of globalization and growing competition, digitalization is the most important economic growth factor. The emerging digital economy is an inevitable trend determined by a new round of technological and industrial revolutions. Its development is one of the strategic priorities of the national policy of the Russian Federation for the coming decades. This fact became the basis for this paper, aimed at analyzing the level of development of Russia’s digital economy, identifying regional differences and factors affecting digitalization. A brief review of research in the fi eld of digital economy allowed defi ning the essence of the digital economy, as well as the key factors contributing digitalization of the economy. The analysis of the development of the digital economy in the world and the Russian Federation shows that the digital transformation of the Russian economy has signifi cantly accelerated in recent years. However, Russia still lags behind the leading countries in key digitalization indicators. There is a signifi cant “digital divide” in the level of use of information and communication technologies by Russian regions and the development of the digital economy. We propose measures to radically change the situation, including growing investment in digital infrastructure; strengthening regional cooperation aimed at sharing resources; increasing digital literacy of the population; creating a favorable “digital” environment, etc. The report also proposes measures to change the situation. The identifi cation of the essence of the digital economy and the methodological tools, proposed in the paper to assess the level of its development, allow talking about the theoretical signifi cance of the work. The practical signifi cance lies in the fact that the study helps to justify a set of measures to develop the digital economy and reduce the gap between regions in terms of digitalization.