Dr Valentina Vučković (Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb) and Dr Paško Bilić (IRMO) presented a paper titled Digital Infrastructure Spillovers: State Capacities and Inequalities in the EU, at the Understanding and Addressing Digital Inequalities conference organised by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and held between 20 and 21 November. The analysis was based on their work in the Croatian Science Foundation project Data, Infrastructures, and Development (DEVELOPER), coordinated by Paško Bilić at the Institute for Development and International Relations.
Vučković and Bilić created a model combining available datasets to compare the institutional conditions and political and economic governance in the EU 27 that provide more egalitarian outcomes (for business, the public sector, and society) through advanced infrastructure (VHCN, 1Gbps, edge nodes, data centres). Results show that infrastructural availability alone is insufficient to produce positive externalities unless supported by robust institutional frameworks, egalitarian governance, and sustained investment. The digitally most advanced (not necessarily the largest) EU economies, grouped in the leading cluster, demonstrate that infrastructural maturity yields spillovers primarily through advanced utilisation and innovation. At the same time, lagging countries remain constrained by weak institutional arrangements and low absorptive capacities. More broadly, their findings indicate that the EU’s digital sovereignty is unlikely to emerge spontaneously through market mechanisms; rather, it depends on deliberate state action and coordinated governance structures that align infrastructural development with digital uptake. To provide broader socio-economic benefits of infrastructure deployment, the analysis highlights the need to reconceptualise digital infrastructures as public and social goods that extend beyond purely economic rationales.
Public discussion “Labor, Migration, and Digital Regimes through Workers’ Voices” held
As part of the Transnational Solidarities series, a public discussion titled “Labor, Migration, and Digital Regimes through Workers’ Voices” was held on November 14 at Club MaMa, focusing on labor, migration, and the transformation of work relations in the era of...
