Digital Economy, R&D Innovation and Regional Integration: A Study Based on Three Chinese Urban Agglomerations

Abstract

Regional integration is a major national development strategy. Whether the rapid development of digital economy can promote R&D innovation and realize regional integration is worthy of further discussion. This paper examines the relationship between digital economy, R&D innovation and regional integration by taking three urban agglomerations in China from 2011 to 2018 as research samples. Referring to the existing research, this paper constructs regional integration index and digital economy index. The regional integration index is constructed from the perspectives of economy, science and technology and ecology. The entropy method is used to comprehensively measure the digital economic index at the urban level from the two levels of Internet development and digital inclusive financial development, and the relationship between them is empirically tested. The results show that both digital economy and R&D innovation help to improve the level of regional integration. R&D innovation plays a mediating role in the mechanism of digital economy influencing regional integration, and digital economy indirectly affects regional integration through R&D innovation. Further construct the spatial Durbin model to study the spatial spillover effect between digital economy and regional integration. It is found that digital economy has an obvious spatial spillover effect on regional integration. Specifically, the digital economy promotes regional integration in the region and inhibits regional integration in adjacent regions. Based on the research results, this paper puts forward the following policy suggestions: build and improve the digital economy system, increase the intensity of innovation, improve regional integration policies, and realize the development of regional integration.