The diffusion of public eServices in European cities

Using a novel dataset on the diffusion of public eServices at the city level in EU 15, this paper contributes to extant empirical literature in three ways. First, it extends the coverage of public eServices beyond eGovernment, investigating four service categories: Infomobility, eProcurement, eGovernment and eHealth. Second, it provides information for both a cross-country and cross-municipality comparison. Third, on the methodological side, it also extends the literature on composite indicators at a municipal level. Cities exhibiting the highest diffusion of public eServices are found to be medium-large, highly endowed with well-educated human capital, and characterised by a lively industrial atmosphere favoured by a reasonable number and variety of production and service activities. The relative performance of the European cities helps identify plausible directions to be taken for policies aimed at favoring the diffusion of public service innovation in Europe.