Digital Economy,Human Capital Effect,and Urban Innovation Output
Innovation is the engine of economic growth and the fundamental driving force for high-quality economic development.However,China faces challenges in its current R&D and innovation landscape,including insufficient allocation of innovation resources,a low level of basic scientific and technological innovation,and weak industrialization of innovations.These issues underscore the structural barriers to"transforming from a factor-driven to an innovation-driven development model",highlighting the urgent need to reshape China's innovation system and build an innovation-driven country.Human capital is the cornerstone of innovation and can be further leveraged through the development of a digital economy,which has the potential to stimulate innovation.In view of this,this paper examines the effects of digital economic development on human capital dividends and urban innovation,using city-level panel data from 2003 to 2020 and quasi-natural experiments based on the Broadband China Pilot Policy.Employing a multi-period double-difference approach,the study further analyzes the synergistic effects of effective government and the digital economy and finds that the development of the digital economy can improve urban innovation output,mainly by promoting labor mobility,optimizing the human capital structure and alleviating human capital allocation distortion.Further analysis shows that effective government enhances the effect of the digital economy on facilitating urban innovation output,and strengthens the incremental supplementation,structural optimization,and efficiency enhancement mechanism of digital economy on human capital.Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the innovation-promoting effect of the digital economy is more pronounced in eastern areas,first-tier cities,and areas with greater market potential.The marginal contributions of this paper are as follows.First,from the perspective of incremental human capital supplementation,structural optimization,and allocation efficiency enhancement,this paper constructs a systematic analytical framework linking the digital economy,human capital effects,and urban innovation output,enriching the existing literature.Second,this paper highlights the moderating role of effective government in enhancing the digital economy's impact on urban innovation output,providing a guiding basis for the active role of government.Third,this paper analyzes the heterogeneous effects of city location,type,and market potential,offering deeper theoretical insights and practical guidance for implementing the"Digital China"strategy to improve urban innovation capacity.
Digital EconomyHuman Capital EffectUrban InnovationEffective GovernmentGovernment Governance Effectiveness
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
