# **_Control Variables_**

The study has extracted the control variables from various sources, including the World Development Indicators (WDI) and other relevant sources. The set of control variables includes the political regime or democracy measure, including Polity2 of the Polity V dataset<sup>14</sup> as political regime characteristics may lead to differentiated effects across countries. Following the literature (Hilger et al., 2020; Vicari et al., 2015), the study also uses a set of control variables from WDI, including socio-economic and demographic characteristics (e.g., the share of the population aged between 15 and 44, the human capital index, and GDP per capita<sup>15</sup> ). The study also uses the power distributed by social group variable from V-Dem. In addition, the study uses the fixed internet broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants variable as a proxy for internet penetration (Boulianne, 2009; Howard, 2006; Putman, 2000) from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) dataset.

**2. Overview of the Adoption of GovTech Platforms and the Level of Citizen Engagement Worldwide**

In the context of this study, a statistical analysis (including stylized facts) was conducted related to the adoption of GovTech platforms and the level of citizen engagement worldwide, focusing on the 198 countries covered by the GTMI. Table 1 summarizes information on the implementation of digital platforms. In the sample of 198 countries, 82 (41.4%) have Implemented a digital platform allowing citizens to participate in policy decision-making, and 75 countries (37.8%) have implemented a platform enabling citizens to provide feedback. However, 112 countries (more than 56%) still need a digital platform for citizens to participate in decision-making or give feedback. Figure 1 highlights that countries that have implemented GovTech, have a relatively higher average level of citizen engagement than countries that have not implemented it. The average differences between adopters and non-adopters are respectively 0.14 points and 0.15 points in 2021 and 2022 for the Civil Society Participation Index and 0.68 points and 0.87 points for the Engaged Society variable. A geographical representation of the countries shows that most countries that have yet to adopt this platform are in Africa and Eastern Europe. In comparison, most North and South American countries as well as Western European countries have platforms in place allowing citizens to participate in decision-making and/or give their opinions.

**Table 1: Cross-tabulation of I30 and I31 adoption (2020)**<sup>**16**</sup>

**Figure 1: Average Citizen Participation by whether GovTech is implemented or not (2020 GMTI Data and 2021 V-dem Data)**

||**I-31**<br>0|1|Total|2<br>3<br>4|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**30**<br>0|112|4|116|0<br>1|
|**I-**<br>1|11|71|82|CSP_2021<br>CSP_2022<br>ES_2021<br>ES_2022|
|Total|123|75|198|Non_GovTech<br>GovTech|

> 14 The Polity V project codes the authority characteristics of states in the world system for purposes of comparative, quantitative analysis.

> 15 This allows for the removal of the implicit income effects and reduces the gap between the values of the different variables. 16 Information concerning the GTMI 2020 data (extracted from the 2022 version of the dataset) is provided above in the subsection Data and Sources.

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