STRUCTURAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS ENHANCING M-COMMERCE: A MACROECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE OVER THREE CLUSTERS OF THE EU27

Abstract

Alongside economic development, trade enhancement and digitalization, both e-commerce and m-commerce have increased gradually over the last decade and are forecasted to increase further over the following years. In the latest years, one of the most important catalyzers of these evolutions was the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this paper, we aim at assessing the impact of some structural economic and social factors upon m-commerce. Specifically, we test the relationship between m-commerce and digitalization, education, economic growth, unemployment and income inequalities within three different clusters of countries of the European Union, for the period 2010 - 2020, using panel date regression models. Our results confirm a positive relationship between m-commerce and digitalization, education and economic growth, while showing a negative link between m-commerce and unemployment in all clusters. On the other hand, our empirical analysis concludes upon quite different results across the three clusters, when considering the relationship between m-commerce and income inequalities.