THE IMPACT OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY ON LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN SERBIA: APPLICATION OF THE ARDL AND ECM APPROACHES

Abstract

Digital technologies have changed the way of people life, their business and behaviour by penetrating all aspects of their everyday life. They influence the development of the economy and society by enabling access to information and resources, connectivity, a more efficient decision-making process, financial inclusion, more advanced business strategies, as well as better access to trade and public services. Digital transformation encourages cooperation, flexibility, communication, efficiency and agility, but also innovation, conflict management, business sustainability, productivity growth, knowledge and general competencies of employees. On the other hand, labour productivity determines competitiveness, the pace of progress and the quality of the economy itself. The purpose of this article is to investigate the long-term and short-term relationship among some indicators of the digital sector and labour productivity in Serbia in the period from 2007 to 2021. While the applied Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) Model indicated that there is no long-term relationship between these phenomena, the applied Error Correction Model (ECM) indicated their short-term relationship. It was also observed that last year's productivity of employees statistically significantly and positively determines their current productivity. The article concludes that the government should continue to encourage the development of the digital economy in Serbia...