Social Inequities and Digital Development. Two of a Kind?

The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of digital inequalities in relation to income and gender inequalities. Existing literature, including initiatives from international organizations such as UIT, has shown a certain interrelation between socio-economic development and the development of connectivity infrastructure and the use of ICTs. Within the EU framework, the Digital Economy Social Index (DESI) has also provided evidence in this regard. However, one of the less explored aspects is to what extent inequalities in infrastructure and digital skills imply a complementary analytical dimension integrated or not with other measures of inequalities. In other words, does the interaction between inequality indices in infrastructure and/or digital skills and gender or income inequality indices represent a significant statistical leap? Or does their separate treatment and then addition in an equation not present significant differences? To address this, two approaches will be proposed: by gaps and by indices, using the experiences previously carried out in INCASI (International Network for Compared Analysis of Social Inequities), and will be applied to countries in Europe, North America, and Latin America. The results will allow approximations to describe the impact of digital developments and their role in increasing productivity, job training, and reducing inequities.