Does Digital Infrastructure Construction Promote Economic Growth?Empirical Evidence from China's Counties
As the basic support for advancing digital development,it is worth paying con-siderable attention to whether digital infrastructure can provide new drivers for regional eco-nomic growth.In this paper,we explore the effects,mechanisms,and spatial spillovers of digital infrastructure construction on county economic growth using fixed-effects models and spatial econometric models with a sample of county-level panel data in China from 2019 to 2020.The main findings of the study are as follows.(1)Digital infrastructure construction has a positive impact on county economic growth,and it is becoming a new engine that empow-ers county economic growth in the era of digital economy.(2)The channel mechanism of digital infrastructure to promote county economic growth is characterized by optimizing in-dustrial structure,driving employment and entrepreneurship,and raising the level of inno-vation.(3)The impact of digital infrastructure development on county economic growth is regionally heterogeneous and policy-dependent,and it contributes to reducing regional eco-nomic gaps.(4)There is a significant spatial spillover effect of the impact of digital infra-structure construction on county economic growth.It can promote local economic growth as well as drive the economic growth of neighboring counties,which helps to realize the syn-ergistic development of the regional economy.
Digital InfrastructureEconomic GrowthCountySpatial Spillover
万方数据
