The diffusion of digital skills across EU regions. Structural drivers and polarisation dynamics

The digital transformation is an important driver of long-run productivity growth and, as such, it has thepotential to promote a more inclusive and sustainable growth. However, digital capabilities, crucial todevelop and govern new digital technologies, are unevenly distributed across European regions,increasing the risk of divergence and polarisation. By taking advantage of a set of original indicatorscapturing the level of digital skills in the regional workforce, this work analyses the factors shaping theprocess of digital skill accumulation in the EU over the period 2011–2018. Relying on transitionprobability matrices and dynamic random effects probit models, we provide evidence of a strong andpersistent regional polarisation in the adoption and deployment of digital skills. Further, we investigatewhether structural factors and European funds (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fundsand European Social Funds) are capable of shaping the digitalisation process and favouring regionalconvergence