Typologization of Regions of the Russian Federation on Reasons of Refusal from Using Electronic Government Services

Abstract

Today, the right choice of public policy mechanisms based on identifying pressing needs of users for realizing the economic, social and cultural benefits of introducing information and communication technology (ICT) tools when interacting with government bodies seems very relevant. However, regional differentiation of the level of development of information society requires the development of differentiated mechanisms for implementing electronic government projects. On the basis of the empirical analysis of regional features of objective reasons for the refusal by the rural population to use information and communication technology to get state and municipal services, a typology of the Russian regions for the share of the population that refused to use public services in electronic form for objective reasons is built. Based on the assessment of regression models, including indicators of the level of economic development of the regions, as well as the level of the ICT infrastructure development, factors that have the greatest influence on the objective reasons for the refusal of the rural population to use ICT tools to get state and municipal services for Russia as a whole and for different types of regions are identified. The paper establishes that the effectiveness of government measures to introduce e-government services and reduce the degree of differentiation of Russian regions on the use of this type of service depends on increasing investment in information and communication technologies, on reducing the cost of connecting and maintaining the ICT infrastructure for the rural population, as well as on the wide information work among the population about the benefits of using e-government services. It is also established that in terms of a sufficiently developed ICT infrastructure, the role of human capital is increasing in the number of factors influencing the objective reasons for non-use of the Internet to get state and municipal services.