Digital Development And Quality Of Life In Romania: A Numerical Characterization

Starting from the idea that any economic growth must also generate better living conditions, a range of statistical indicators were developed for evaluate standard of living and quality of life. As the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most recognized indicator, we have tackled its evolution, in spite of the recent criticism in the literature around GDP usage that is made by researchers focusing on finding more complex indicators. These indicators should accurately reflect changes in the standard of living (and especially in the quality of life) generated by expansion of a new kind of economy called digital economy. In this study, it is conducted an exploratory research using historical data for seven representative indicators to characterize the digital development and the resulting expression on the quality of life of a country. The statistical characterization uses dispersion indicators within a numerical range, using quantiles computations in deciles. We have pointed out the current Romania's rank in a decile intervals and the place on the performance profile (and the advance or decline of this position when compared with 2000); also interesting is highlighting the convergence performance in what regards the analyzed indicators and the distribution of values of some countries of interest (obviously, Romania is of primary interest) in data sets of several indicator expressing the digital development.