QUALITY AND SAFETY IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: SPECIFICS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

This paper aims at studying quality from the positions of safety in the digital economy of developing countries. Originality of this research consists in the following: firstly, quality is evaluated from the positions of safety. Not only safety as a feature of product quality (internal effects) but also influence of product quality on safety in society and economy (external effects) - negative and positive - are taken into account. Secondly, the essence and structure of safety are specified and the scientific and methodological approach to evaluation of products' quality from the positions of safety is developed and approbated by the example of modern developing countries. Products' safety is studied in the unity of all its components. Thirdly, quality from the positions of safety is considered in the context of the digital economy and in view of specific experience of developing countries. Fourthly, the influence of economic freedom on quality from the positions of safety in the digital economy of developing countries is considered, which allows determining the role of state standardization and control in this process. It is determined that general level of products' quality from the positions of safety in developing countries is rather high, regardless of the level of economic freedom - 63.48% on average in 2020. Due to optimization of influence of digitalization, products' quality from the positions of safety in developing countries could be increased by 1.55 times - up to 98.16% until 2025. A complex of practical recommendations is offered for this.