Regional Growth and Disparities in the Era of Digital Transition

A digital transition is taking place nowadays based on the so called 4.0 technologies. The application of such technologies is so powerful as to change the way people work and communicate, express, inform and entertain themselves, and, finally, do business. The feeling of disruption is deep, as the outcome is very difficult to anticipate. We do not know yet the effects of such adoption and especially where such technologies will have their major positive (higher performance) and negative (higher inequalities) impacts. The territorial dimension of these phenomena has been largely neglected in the literature, or, at best, treated in a fragmented way, even if empirical evidence is expanding in the very last years. Questions like "Where do technological transformations take place? Do they generate growth at the local level? Do they worsen regional disparities?" are taken into consideration in the presentation.