Is digital government facilitating entrepreneurship? A comparative statics analysis

Joana Costa () and Luís Carvalho ()
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Joana Costa: Universidade de Aveiro
Luís Carvalho: Universidade do Porto

No 164, GEE Papers from Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia

Abstract: Promoting entrepreneurship has become a government priority worldwide. At the same time, digital technology has been embraced by governmental authorities, particularly focusing on digital infrastructure and online service provision. In this paper, we explore whether there might be a connection between both policy ambitions – notably at the local level. To do so, we empirically assess the relationship between different dimensions of government digitalization and entrepreneurial dynamics, using panel data from 278 Portuguese municipalities between 2014 and 2019, primarily drawn from the Portuguese survey on government ICT deployment (IUTIC) and analyzed through compared regression models. Results suggest an overall positive effect of digital government efforts on entrepreneurship. However, digital openness, a user-focus and transparency initiatives seem to matter more to entrepreneurship than internally-oriented digitalization measures. The results provide evidence of the positive effect of government digitalization on entrepreneurship, suggesting that the digital transition may generate relevant social returns for local economies and thus an additional mechanism for the promotion of smart and sustained growth.

Keywords: e-government; digital transition; entrepreneurship; local government (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H79 L26 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2022-06, Revised 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-eur, nep-ict, nep-pay and nep-sbm
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https://www.gee.gov.pt//RePEc/WorkingPapers/GEE_PAPERS_164.pdf First version, 2022 (application/pdf)

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