Abstract
Technological innovation and high-quality economic development are inevitable requirements of sustainable development, and the digital economy has gradually become a new engine to enhance technological innovation and the high-quality development of China’s economy. Deeply discussing the effect of digital economy on high-quality economic development and clarifying the mechanism behind it can effectively grant the boosting power of digital economy to China’s high-quality development, which is of great practical significance to China’s sustainable economic development. In this study, the mechanism, effect, and regional heterogeneity of the impact of the digital economy on the level of high-quality economic development in 30 Chinese provinces from 2011–2019 were measured and empirically tested using a mediating effects model and a spatial Durbin model, among others. The results showed that the overall level of digital economy and high-quality development is not high, and there were both high agglomeration and low agglomeration, with obvious spatial path dependence and spatial lock-in. Digital economy could promote the high-quality development level of the economy, and the spatial spillover effect was remarkable. In addition, the function of digital economy in promoting high-quality economic development in the eastern, central, and western regions was gradually weakened. Besides, the technological innovation was an important transmission path of digital economy to high-quality economic development. Based on these findings, it is proposed that decision-makers should strengthen digitalization efforts so that the digital economy can become a powerful tool to narrow the digital divide. Further, the dynamic and differentiated digital economy development strategy should be implemented to reduce regional development imbalances in an effective manner.
Highlights
Digital economy has advantages in technological innovation ability, industrial integration ability, and market expansion ability [1], and plays an important role in promoting high-quality economic development
In addition to the direct effect embodied in Equation (1), in order to discuss the possible mechanisms of action of the digital economy on the high-quality development of the economy, another verification is conducted to determine whether technological innovation is a mediating variable between the two
Tcit = β 0 + β 1 Digeit + β c Controlit + μi + ε it Ehqdit = γ0 + γ1 Digeit + γ2 Tcit + γc Controlit + μi + ε it to further discuss the spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on high-quality development, the spatial interaction terms of these two and other control variables are introduced to Equation (1), which is further extended into a spatial panel econometric model: Ehqdit = α0 + ρWEhqd + φ1 WDigeit + φc WControlit + α1 Digeit
Summary
Digital economy has advantages in technological innovation ability, industrial integration ability, and market expansion ability [1], and plays an important role in promoting high-quality economic development. This article innovatively combined the three to deepen the existing literature and research Within this framework, this article attempted to answer the question of how digital technology mainly affects economic development and clarified the influence of technological innovation on the path of digital technology’s impact on high-quality development, which is of great theoretical and practical significance. It attempted to supplement the shortage of empirical methods for research in this field.
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