REGIONAL DIGITAL DIVIDE AND ECONOMIC CONVERGENCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM UZBEKISTAN’S ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORIES

Аннотация

This study investigates the relationship between the regional digital divide and economic convergence across Uzbekistan’s fourteen administrative territories over 2018-2025. Amid the ongoing “Digital Uzbekistan - 2030” strategy and the rapid expansion of IT Park regional branches, persistent disparities in digital infrastructure between Tashkent city and peripheral territories such as Karakalpakstan, Surkhandarya, and Jizzakh raise the question of whether digitalization narrows or widens interregional income gaps. The study constructs a composite Regional Digital Divide Index (RDDI) from five normalized indicators covering broadband penetration, mobile network density, information-service turnover, enterprise software adoption, and IT Park residency, integrating it into absolute and conditional beta-convergence equations alongside a sigma-convergence test of gross regional product per capita dispersion. Using an unbalanced panel built from official regional statistics, the analysis applies Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects, and Random Effects estimators, selecting among them with the Hausman specification test. The results reveal no statistically significant absolute beta-convergence, but a negative and significant coefficient on initial GRP once the RDDI and control variables, namely fixed capital investment, urbanization, industrial share, and human capital, are included, indicating conditional convergence at an implied annual speed of roughly three to four percent. Sigma-convergence tests show a modest narrowing of GRP dispersion after 2021, coinciding with accelerated infrastructure rollout, although the digital divide itself remains wide, with Tashkent city’s index exceeding the lowest-ranked territories by more than a factor of four. The findings support regionally differentiated digital investment as a lever for territorial equalization and inform concrete policy recommendations for Uzbekistan’s digital and regional development authorities.