ПРОБЛЕМА КЛАССИФИКАЦИИ ЦИФРОВОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ

Abstract

The paper performs the results of analysis due to the problem of categorization and classification of digital economy in order to assess its contribution to economic growth. The evolution of approaches to understanding the concept of digital economy is noted – evolution from Internet economy to perception of digital technologies as a factor in any economic activity. We analyzed one of the models categorizing digital economy, based on assessing the need for the use of digital technologies (it includes three categories – the ICT sector, the digital economy itself, the digitalized economy), and also indicated the shortcomings of the concept, in particular, impossibility to reliably determine the critical need of using digital technologies for different types of economic activity, thus they fall into related categories according to the classification. In addition, the paper analyzes the possibility of classifying the digital economy as a knowledge economy for further more accurate definition and categorization of "digital economy" concept. Based on the results of the analysis, key features of digital economy were identified for the further development of updated concept of digital economy and possibility of optimal categorization during further research. These features include science intensity, which is, among other things, cause existing difficulties in categorizing economic sectors and attributing them to the digital sector due to the diffusion of knowledge (and specifically digital technologies as the final result of knowledge accumulation), as well as their extensive penetration into most economic processes. As a result, it is necessary to develop a toolkit that can quantify the value of science intensity (manufacturability) of a particular sector of the economy in order to most accurately categorize and assess the contribution of the digital economy to economic growth. The second key feature of the digital economy is the reduction of transaction costs of interaction between economic agents (based on the concept of horizontal, vertical and diagonal costs by J. Commons) as a result of using digital products.