Does Digital Development Really Deliver on the Promise of Poverty Reduction? Evidence From Argentina

Abstract

Despite notable advances in digital infrastructure and services, Argentina's digital strategy has marginalised poverty reduction as a core objective. Digital inclusion initiatives have often been politically instrumentalised, prioritising symbolic visibility over structural transformation. Geographic and sectoral asymmetries further constrain the redistributive potential of digital economic development. Through a critical institutionalist lens, this study interrogates how institutional histories, political incentives and policy paradigms shape the poverty-reduction outcomes of digitalisation in Latin America's highly urbanised, middle-income contexts, challenging dominant functionalist and technocratic narratives in digital transformation research.