ICTs and the digital division of labour

Digital information and communication technologies constitute the backbone of the most advanced economies. They are fundamental in production - both in manufacturing and services - and are more and more used for consumption. Their ubiquity makes it necessary to try to modernise the Smithian principle of the division of labour which must now be preceded by the adjective digital. This paper constitutes an attempt at going in this direction. First of all, it considers the early phases of digitisation; then some data on ICTs is provided; finally, some key components of the digital division of labour are considered, namely hardware, software, e-work, the role of institutions and some idiosyncrasies of the legal foundations of digital capitalism.