GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE AND THE E-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM EU COUNTRIES
GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE AND THE E-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM EU COUNTRIES

Author(s): Adina Dornean, Nicoleta Țicu
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Economy
Published by: Editura Universităţii »Alexandru Ioan Cuza« din Iaşi
Keywords: government expenditure; e-government; digitalisation; EGDI; panel data models;
Summary/Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the implementation of e-government in the public sector in order to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. According to the European Digital Strategy, by 2030, the EU's goal is to ensure that democratic life and online public services are fully accessible to all, including people with disabilities, and benefit from a top-quality digital environment offering user-friendly, efficient, and personalized services and tools with high levels of security and privacy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between e-government development (digitalization of public services) and government expenditure, with a focus on general public services expenditure for the 27 European Union countries (EU) over the period 2003-2022. For this purpose, we apply panel data estimation techniques, and we use E-Government Development Index (EGDI) as dependent variable and expenditures on general public services, research and development expenditure, total public expenditures, internet penetration rate, human development index, GDP per capita, level of digital skills and corruption perceptions index as independent variables. Our findings confirm significant differences among the levels of e-government development in the EU-27 countries. Moreover, our results show that EGDI is significantly and negatively associated with government expenditure, especially general public services expenditure. This paper aims to fill the gap and to bring useful results for governments and its institutions.

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