Institutional Openness and the Integration of Digital and Real Economics:Evidence from the Establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones
The integration of digital and real economics is an important way to achieve high-quality economic development.It is of great significance to fully explore the effectiveness of the institutional openness of pilot free trade zone and promote the integration of digital and real economics.This paper constructs a quasi-natural experiment with the establishment of free trade zone(FTZ),and empirically tests the impact of institutional openness on digital-real integration using data from 284 cities from 2011-2021.The study finds that the establishment of FTZ accelerates the integration of digital and real economics,and the lower the cost of institutional coordination is and the stronger the authorization of the FTZ is,the more obvious the integration effect is.Mechanism tests show that the establishment of FTZ can promote the digital-real integration from both the supply and demand sides,with the improvement of the level of digital technology on the supply side and the expansion of market demand on the demand side as its important channels.Heterogeneity analysis finds that the digital-real integration effect of FTZ establishment is more sensitive among regions with high market segmentation,regions with good digital infrastructure,and regions with business credit advantages.Further analysis reveals that the digital-real integration effect driven by the radiation of FTZ in neighboring regions is only effective in the long run,but not in the short run.The findings of this paper can provide new theoretical interpretation and practical references for promoting the deepening of digital-real integration.
institutional opennessintegration of digital and real economicspilot free trade zoneradiation drive
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万方数据
