Vienna study on inclusive innovation for growth and cohesion : modelling and demonstrating the impact of eInclusionExecutive report

This is the Executive Report of the monograph "Inclusive Innovation for Growth and Cohesion: modelling and demonstrating the impact of eInclusion" also known as "Vienna Study", as it was launched by Unit ICT for Inclusion of DG Information Society and Media with the aim of providing input to the Ministerial Debate on eInclusion that took place in occasion of the Ministerial Conference on eInclusion held in Vienna (30 November- 2 December 2008). The Vienna Study, primarily focussed on the social and economic impact of eInclusion, also analysed the root causes behind processes of digital inclusion or exclusion and derived from it important implications for policy. In order to do so: a) some 300 hundreds theoretical and empirical sources have been reviewed; b) 1000 cases of eInclusion support initiatives were screened and 125 of them analysed in depth; c) a wide ranging review of the economic literature on the impact of ICT was conducted; d) an econometric model to assess the impact of possessing or lacking digital skills on employability and wage differentials was designed and run. In addition to this, the Vienna Study also leveraged and analysed the empirical evidence from another project funded by DG Information Society and Media on ICT potential for the economic and social inclusion of immigrants and ethnic minorities (realised by the Join Research Centre of the European Commission Institute of Prospective Technological Studies, IPTS). The sheer breadth and depth of the theoretical and empirical evidence gathered and analysed in this study is unique and makes it a ground breaking contribution to the field.