Politická ekonomie 2026, 74(3):464-489 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.1496

Future of Digital Economy: How Research and Development Can Address the Digital Divide Amid Resource Constraints

Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo ORCID...
Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo, Irfan Suat Gunsel Operational Research Institute, Near East University, TRNC Mersin, Turkey; University of Economics and Human Sciences, Warsaw, Poland; Research Centre of Development Economics, State University of Economics (UNEC), Baku, Azerbaijan

The digital economy is unquestionably a globally recognized priority among countries, yet comprehensive scholarly discussions on the specific determinants driving its growth remain relatively limited. To fill this gap, the present study pioneers an investigation into how research and development, natural resources and economic policy uncertainty influence the digital economy in the United States of America (USA), using data from 1996Q1 to 2020Q4. Given the nonlinear and non-normal distribution of the data, the study employs a series of quantile-based approaches, particularly the wavelet quantile-on-quantile regression (WQQR). The results of the WQQR reveal that research and development, globalization, economic growth and economic policy uncertainty positively affect the digital economy, while the abundance of natural resources appears to hinder its growth. Based on these findings, policymakers in the USA should prioritize fostering innovation through R&D while addressing the challenges associated with natural resource dependence to drive the growth of the digital economy.

Keywords: Digital economy, research and development, natural resources, economic policy uncertainty
JEL classification: E60, O30, O33, Q32, Q33

Received: July 24, 2024; Revised: November 26, 2024; Accepted: February 12, 2025; Prepublished online: November 12, 2025; Published: June 22, 2026  Show citation

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Sunday Adebayo, T. (2026). Future of Digital Economy: How Research and Development Can Address the Digital Divide Amid Resource Constraints. Politická ekonomie, 74(3), 464-489. doi: 10.18267/j.polek.1496
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