DIGITAL DIVIDE OR DIGITAL INEQUALITY? NEW DIMENSIONS OF GLOBAL ASYMMETRIES OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN THE CONDITIONS OF TECHNOGLOBALISM
Authors: Bulatova O. , Reznikova N. , Ivashchenko O. ,   Mariupol State University,   Educational and Scientific Institute of International Relations Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv,   The National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit
Published: September 2023

The purpose of the study is to characterize the phenomena of "digital inequality" and "digital divide" from the standpoint of global challenges of socio-economic development and international trade in the context of techno-globalism. It is argued that technoglobalism is both a kind of constructor of a new economic reality, in which technology is entrusted with the function of a generator of economic development and growth, and the result of increased asymmetries of international division in the context of the transnationalization of the world economy: on the one hand, governments of countries and corporations in the conditions of innovative rivalry all they compete more actively for the opportunity to develop new market niches, taking a course towards the technological complication of products that are in the arsenal of their specialization, not avoiding the use of market distortion and protectionism tools, despite the development of new forms of public-private partnership; on the other hand, although the geopolitical struggle, often centered around the issue of digital patents, standards and production, significantly weakens multilateral decision-making and collective action in the field of innovation, the growth of international scientific and technological cooperation, the intensification of the exchange of patents and licenses, the diffusion of knowledge through channels of exchange of scientific personnel, testify to the inevitability of a global technological dialogue. The analysis made it possible to establish that the digital divide is most clearly manifested, firstly, in the use of digital technologies (due to the availability of basic infrastructure, accessibility, etc.), secondly, in the benefits received from digital technologies, and, thirdly, in the level of digital skills. The parameters by which the digital divide is defined include mainly the state of development of a country compared to other countries (capacity gap, participation gap, performance gap), the state of development of urban and rural areas and their populations, indicators of individual income, level of education, age structures (access gap, literacy gap, use gap) within a country and compared between countries. Because this digital divide exists in all digital technologies, it has the potential to widen. The digital transformation of the economy is accompanied by an increase in demand for automation of production processes, resulting in an unlimited pool of robotic workforce in a sector prone to automation, distorting the international labor market. This "reserve army of robots" is gradually displacing the workforce from the automation-prone sector to the automationresistant sector, in a process that can be called "digital crowding out" and accompanied by rising unemployment and lower wage costs, indicating a worsening social economic inequality. Although income inequality in most developed countries has been increasing even before the spread of global dominance of technology companies, it can be assumed that the further spread of ICT will increase the sources of income of market participants who use digital technologies. Outlined is a manifestation of the network effect in markets where the value of the product increases with each additional unit sold/produced, then the early advantage allows for increased value for each subsequent user, creating a Matthew effect. Keywords: socio-economic development, global inequality, technological development, innovative development, technoglobalism, digital economy, digital divide, digital inequality, digital business models, digital trade, international trade, world economy, labor market, unemployment, pandemic.