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Most publications justify that digitalization is a source of economic growth, to a greater extent in the countries with higher levels of economic development. However, some papers fail to find empirical evidence supporting this claim, attributing it to digitalization being in its initial stages or to the presence of the digitalization paradox. Economic literature exhibits a degree of ambiguity in its conclusions regarding the role of the digital economy in growth. Researchers employ different measures of digitalization, country and year samples, control variables in regression equation, as well as different regression methods, which can provoke ambiguous effects on the parameters of digital variables. The purpose of the article is to identify the role of digitalization in economic growth by justifying an economic growth model with the digitalization index and providing detailed discussions on our sample of countries over recent years, along with options for regression estimators. The article utilizes statistical data from the World Bank, European Commission, and Heritage Foundation. Methods such as system analysis, statistical analysis, and the regression estimator of panel data with fixed effects are implemented to identify the role of digitalization in economic growth. We have designed an economic growth model incorporating the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) of EU member states for the years 2017-2022, utilizing available data. The results reveal a positive and significant causal effect of digitization on gross output growth. Specifically, a 1% increase in the digitalization index results in GDP growth of almost 0.2%. Moreover, we observe the important roles of capital, labor, trade, human capital, and intellectual property rights in driving growth, consistent with the theory of endogenous growth. Proving the importance of digitalization for economic growth can be an argument for policies aimed at promoting digitalization. We suggest further research on the role of digitalization at a more disaggregated level of industries. However, our study does not demonstrate a statistically significant effect of research activity and institutional quality on gross output. We have discussed possible reasons for this and propose further research in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress towards sustainable development is the priority for countries all over the globe. Understanding the essence of sustainable development is a basis for conducting research and practical actions. The aim of the article is to find out the global determinants of sustainable development in the context of digital transformation. The era of digital technologies creates new approaches to solving available issues and challenges. New normality requires defining global determinants of sustainable development and creating new tools for achieving its goals. The study has provided empirical evidence and proved that ICT is one of the important drivers of sustainable development. The conducted analysis shows that there is a direct impact of ICT development and digitisation on achieving SDG 9 "Industry, Innovations and Infrastructure”. The indirect impact of digitalisation on the SDGs is analysed. It is proved that the implementation of digital technologies in business processes and digitalisation of non-IT sectors of the economy will contribute to the comprehensive implementation of a number of SDGs, such as SDGs 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, and will give impetus to the achievement of other goals, which will generally have a synergistic effect. Benchmarking of practices used by well-developed countries enabled the identification of a number of priority areas related to the digitisation of the economy, namely, the development of digital skills among the population for entrepreneurial activities, state support for the digitalisation of business, especially SMEs, promotion of e-commerce, electronic payments. This study makes multiple contributions namely to academic debate on the influence of digitisation on sustainable development, demonstrates the interrelations between SDGs and highlights evidence on the global determinants of sustainable development. Conducted research outlines 4 groups of factors to enhance achieving SDGs in terms of digital transformation: 1) network coverage; 2) the number of Internet users; 3) affordability of access to the Internet; 4) digital literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, globalization and digital technologies are significantly transforming the landscape of international trade. Digital transformation has become a critical aspect that determines the competitiveness of countries and businesses in the international arena. The study aims to identify the impact of the digitalization of international trade on the economic development of countries and their competitiveness based on technological innovations that determine the future of global competition at the country and company levels, affect trade processes, and identify and justify investment priorities to support digital transformation in Ukraine. The study analyzes the impact of the digitalization of international trade on the economic development of countries, which is caused by the digital divide between developed and least developed countries (LDCs). Developed countries are characterized by Internet coverage and access of more than 90%, as opposed to LDCs, where the corresponding figure is less than 20%. Given the current conditions of access to the Internet, the countries of the latter group are not able to be fully involved in e-commerce and cross-border trade in digital products. An additional barrier to developing digital commerce in certain regions of the world is the need for more legislation on various ecommerce trade issues. The impact of the war in Ukraine on the e-commerce market is determined: the ecommerce market declined 12 times in 2022 compared to the pre-war period and began to recover gradually in 2023. The market is expected to recover almost fully in Ukraine by the end of 2023 or early 2024. The main challenge for Ukraine will be to expand the scope of the existing free trade agreements to cover services, e-commerce, and investment. Ukraine should become a significant player in several global markets for services and digital products, given the availability of an updated regulatory framework on these issues. E-commerce is expected to grow rapidly after the end of the war in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]