The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on Energy Poverty and Unemployment in Selected European Union Countries

Abstract

The accelerated development of information and communication technologies (ICT) over the last three decades has encouraged researchers to analyse the impact of this phenomenon on the labour market. The potential decline in employment resulting from the proliferation of ICT may reduce access to basic energy services and even lead to energy poverty in the form of inability to heat the apartment as needed, allocating a significant part of revenues to expenses related to heating or problems with the timely payment of energy bills. Because access to energy is of fundamental importance for improving the quality of life and is crucial from the point of view of economic development, it is justified to verify the hypothesis that the accelerated development of ICT in EU countries may contribute to an increase in unemployment and, consequently, translate into a higher level of energy poverty. The described research results were obtained thanks to a comparative factor analysis based on secondary data. The analysis showed that in the period 2009–2019, the use of ICT had a limited impact on the unemployment rate in the EU and had a significant impact on reducing the level of energy poverty in EU Member States. As regards the impact of ICT factors on the level of energy poverty, only IP traffic showed a significant impact in this area. When it comes to the labour market, it was found that employment is chiefly influenced by economic factors such as labour costs.

Digitalization and Poverty Reduction: Case in Indonesia

“…The results of the study [13] show that increasing internet use has a multidimensional impact on poverty reduction in rural China. The same thing was also found by Yilmaz and Koyuncu [14]; Zhang [15]; Pradhan [12], ICT penetration can lead to higher economic growth; the results showed that increasing access to information had a significant positive effect on poverty reduction efforts [16]. Research in Bangladesh shows that ICT has a very good ability to alleviate poverty despite the many challenges that must be faced [17].…”

Information and communication technologies role in alleviating poverty in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Impacts and transmission channels

“…Furthermore, the deployment of ICT services is expected to generate more or fewer employment opportunities and, hence, have an ambiguous effect on the poverty rate (Metu et al, 2021; Nipo et al, 2019; Postuła et al, 2021). Within the broad spectrum of ICT‐enabled employment, there are two specific intersections.…”

“…The proliferation of ICTs might also negatively affect employability (increase the unemployment rate, Brouwer et al, 1993; Machin & Van Reenen, 1998). Since ICT might affect the labor market (employment) negatively or positively, empirical studies on the influence of ICT infrastructure on employability have not been robust (Metu et al, 2021; Nipo et al, 2019; Postuła et al, 2021). This situation is because such an impact depends on other factors, such as; the skills of the labor force, the age structure of the labor force, affordability of ICT services, and the economy's structure (Metu et al, 2021).…”