DIGITAL ECONOMY: ESSENCE, MAIN DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT, CONSEQUENCES
The relevance of the topic of the article is due to the fact that the existing ideas in science did not form a unified understanding of the essence, directions and consequences of the digital economy, therefore, the aim of the research is to substantiate and outline the author’s idea of the regularity of the digital economy and its essence, ways of its development. The category of the digital economy is considered in the unity of genetic, essential, structural and functional aspects, the internal relationship of digitali-zation with the fourth industrial revolution and the beginning of the introduction of digital technologies in all spheres of human life are grounded. The scientific significance of the research is to reveal the content and main directions of Russia’s systemic transition to the model of digital development. The formulated methodological approach and the results obtained open the way for further studies of essen-tial features of the digital economy and for the development of practical measures for its development, and help prevent negative consequences of digitalization, institutional regulation of the systemic transi-tion of the Russian economy to the model of digital development.
Keywords: digitalization, digital economy, big data, platform economy, fourth industrial revolution, in-formation society.
Highlights:
• the ideas about the genesis, essence, prospects and consequences of the digital economy are pre-sented;
• the material basis of the digital economy and the direction of its development are disclosed;
• the consequences of the transition of the economy to the model of digital development are exam-ined.
Konstantin N. Ermolaev, Doctor of Economics, Head of the Department of Institutional Economics and Economic History, Samara State University of Economics.