Digital Economy And Total Factor Productivity:Level Measurements,Impact Effects And Regional Disparity Studies

At present,China is in a critical period of high-quality development,in which it is necessary to better coordinate the reasonable growth of economic "quantity" and effective improvement of "quality";moreover,driving total factor productivity improvement by science and technology innovation has become an inevitable choice for high-quality economic development.To promote the transformation and upgrading of the economic structure and focus on improving total factor productivity,China must change its development mindset and gradually shift from a "sloppy" growth model with high inputs and high pollution to an "intensive" growth model with technology-driven,and digital factor inputs as the main direction.At the beginning of the century,the fourth generation of information technology promoted the emergence,development and prosperity of China’s digital economy.Then,in the context of the new era of increasing downward pressure on China’s economy,the increasing depletion of traditional kinetic energy and the gradual slowdown of economic growth,with the construction of a modernized economic system as the main theme,the goal of improving the quality and efficiency of development,and the promotion of digitalization and the deep integration of the real economy as the means led to efforts to enhance the total factor productivity of China’s economy which has become the key to high-quality development.Productivity is not only the rightful meaning of high-quality development but also an urgent requirement for China to update its development mode and successfully complete the transformation of old and new dynamics.The development of China’s digital economy is still at an early stage,and although the platform economy,the sharing economy and other new industries and models of the digital economy have become increasingly prosperous,the integration of digital technology and traditional industries has not yet been fully promoted and popularized,and data resources as a key factor of production in economic activities still have more room to play.Although studies have shown that the impact of the digital economy on China’s total factor productivity can be expected,with further deep integration with the real industry,the mechanism,channel and path of its impact on total factor productivity are still unclear,and many problems have not yet been effectively solved.First,what is the current level of development of China’s digital economy,and what are the regional characteristics and the spatial and temporal dynamics of the evolution? Second,can the digital economy significantly contribute to the improvement of total factor productivity in China? If so,what are the specific mechanisms and paths that affect total factor productivity? Furthermore,do the effects of the digital economy on total factor productivity differ,as technical efficiency and technological progress carry different connotations of total factor productivity from different directions and perspectives? In addition,are there spatial spillovers and nonlinear characteristics of the impact of the digital economy on total factor productivity?What are the inertia and fluctuation characteristics of its impact on total factor productivity? Third,in the context of the widening regional digital divide in China,can the digital economy significantly reduce the regional total factor productivity gap? To answer the above three questions,this thesis first explores the steady-state output in the context of the digital economy by constructing a neoclassical economic growth model with the addition of data elements and elaborates the mechanism of the impact of the digital economy on the total factor productivity of regions,cities and enterprises from the theoretical level.This thesis then discusses the spatial and temporal evolution of China’s digital economy,the dynamics of spatial agglomeration and distribution,and the characteristics of regional development differences and convergence based on a unified theoretical framework and systematically explores the mechanisms and paths of the digital economy to enhance China’s total factor productivity from the perspectives of macroprovincial,mesocity and microenterprise.Finally,this thesis further explores the dynamic impact of the digital economy on the regional total factor productivity gap and the transmission mechanism based on the perspective of factor marketization and resource mismatch.The above research is conducive to clarifying the theoretical mechanism of China’s digital economy to promote total factor productivity and providing a reference for the path to clarify the method of improving the quality and efficiency of the economy;it is conducive to making full use of the comparative advantages of the digital economy,seizing the historical opportunity period,and better understanding the impact of information technology on total factor productivity;it is conducive to enriching the literature on the digital economy and providing more ideas for the study of the digital economy and total factor productivity in China.It is also conducive to enriching the literature on the digital economy and providing more ideas for research on the digital economy and total factor productivity in China.Specifically,this thesis investigates the following aspects.First,this thesis explores the steady-state output problem in the context of the digital economy by constructing a neoclassical growth model with the addition of data factors,and the model derivation results show that the improved neoclassical growth model has higher total system output due to data factor inputs.The thesis then elaborates on the impact of the digital economy on regional,urban and enterprise total factor productivity from macroprovincial,mesocity and microenterprise perspectives based on a unified theoretical framework.Finally,based on the typical fact that there is a huge "digital divide" in China,this thesis discusses the mechanism by which the digital economy narrows the regional total factor productivity gap from a theoretical perspective.Second,from the perspective of input-output,this thesis presents a comprehensive measurement of China’s digital economy development level from2010 to 2020 based on the time-weighted dynamic TOPSIS evaluation method and the construction of a statistical index system of China’s digital economy development level and systematically discusses the spatial and temporal evolution pattern,the dynamic characteristics of spatial agglomeration and distribution of China’s digital economy,and the regional digital economy development differences and revenue.On this basis,we systematically explore the spatial and temporal evolution of China’s digital economy,the dynamic characteristics of spatial agglomeration and distribution,and the differences and convergence of the regional digital economy.First,the results of the temporal evolution analysis show that China’s digital economy has been growing simultaneously in many fields,such as the internet service industry,platform economy,and industrial intelligence,pulling China’s overall digital economy index and various subindices to maintain a high growth rate;however,further analysis of the spatial evolution shows that China is gradually moving from the era of traffic explosion to the era of traffic gaming,and the overall level of digital economy development is low,with significant spatial differences and uneven regional development.However,further analysis of the spatial evolution shows that China is gradually moving from the era of traffic explosion to the era of traffic gaming.Second,the results of spatial agglomeration analysis show that the development level of China’s digital economy is "high agglomeration" and "low agglomeration" in most provinces;the results of spatial evolution analysis further show that the uneven development of China’s digital economy along with the regional gap is becoming increasingly prominent.The results of the spatial evolution analysis further indicate that the regional development of China’s digital economy is becoming increasingly uneven,and the regional gap is gradually expanding.Finally,the results of the source of variation analysis show that the interregional variation in digital economy development has been much higher than the intraregional variation and has been the largest source of the total regional variation in the digital economy since the beginning;the results of the convergence analysis show that there is a trend of convergence in China’s digital economy development index,with the fastest convergence in the central and western regions where the initial development level is lower.However,the difference in the rate of convergence can mitigate the widening of the regional development imbalance but cannot reverse the huge digital economy development gap between the east and the mid-west.Third,based on the systematic theoretical framework,this thesis conducts an empirical study on the specific mechanisms through which the digital economy affects total factor productivity in China from the macroprovincial,mesocity,and microfirm perspectives.(1)At the macro level,first,a systematic dynamic panel model is constructed to empirically test the impact of digital economy development on provincial total factor productivity,and the preliminary conclusion is that digital economy development is generally beneficial to total factor productivity enhancement.Second,from two levels of technological progress and technical efficiency,the empirical results show that the development of the digital economy in China at the present stage is only beneficial to the improvement of total factor productivity by improving the management level and optimizing resource allocation.Technical efficiency enhancement,which is mainly characterized by improving total factor productivity by improving the management level and optimizing resource allocation,has a significant effect,while technical progress enhancement,which is mainly characterized by improving the absolute technical level of market players through the continuous outward shift of the production frontier,is limited;in other words,the rapid development of the digital economy does not mean the rapid improvement of China’s absolute technical level,the key technologies are restricted,key components "stuck neck",the serious lack of a high-end industrial chain and other problems are still very prominent.Finally,the development of the digital economy at this stage has inhibitory and destructive effects on the rationality of China’s industrial structure,and this structure has to a certain extent hindered the effect of the digital economy on the enhancement of total factor productivity.(2)At the meso level,based on the above conclusion that the digital economy has a significant effect on provincial total factor productivity,this thesis further narrows the scope and uses the spatial Durbin model and dynamic panel regression to investigate whether there are spatial spillover effects and nonlinear characteristics of the impact of the digital economy on regional total factor productivity,taking Chinese cities as the objects of investigation.The spatial measurement results show that the digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect in the process of improving total factor productivity;the nonlinear empirical results show that there is an "inverted U-shaped" relationship between the development of the digital economy and total factor productivity in cities.(3)At the micro level,based on the macro and meso levels,this thesis discusses the impact of digital economy development on regional(provincial and urban)total factor productivity and decomposes the total factor productivity of listed companies in China into an "enhancement effect" and a "smoothing effect"."The theoretical mechanism,nonlinear relationship and heterogeneity of the digital economy affecting the total factor productivity of enterprises are examined in detail by using various methods such as systematic dynamic panel model,mediation model,constructing instrumental variables and double differencing.First,this thesis initially concludes that although the digital economy can significantly improve the total factor productivity level of enterprises,there is a nonlinear relationship between the two,but the current development stage of the digital economy in China is still in the "dividend release period" that can effectively promote the total factor productivity of enterprises.Finally,based on the intermediary effect test,this thesis finds that the development of the urban digital economy can promote the improvement of the total factor productivity of enterprises by expanding the economy of scale and scope and optimizing the management efficiency of enterprises.Fourth,this thesis further explores the dynamic impact of China’s digital economy development on the regional total factor productivity gap and the transmission mechanism based on the perspective of factor marketization and resource mismatch in the context of the serious regional imbalance in China’s digital economy development and the widening "digital divide".The results show that although there is an obvious "inverted U-shaped" relationship between the development of China’s digital economy and the regional total factor productivity gap during the study period,it does not help narrow the regional total factor productivity gap at the current stage of China’s digital economy development.The improvement of factor marketization can significantly enhance the effect of the digital economy on the reduction of the regional total factor productivity gap;the improvement of resource mismatch also has this effect,but the improvement paths are different in different regions with different total factor productivity levels.Specifically,the improvement of capital mismatch significantly enhances the reduction of the regional total factor productivity gap in the digital economy only in the eastern region,while the improvement of labor mismatch is only significant in the central and western regions,especially in the western region.Finally,refining,condensing and deepening the theoretical research and empirical results,this thesis puts forward the following policy recommendations:first,make efforts to break the barriers of factor mobility and continue to promote the coordinated development strategy of the interregional digital economy;second,focus on promoting the core research of key technologies of the digital economy and establish a more complete and scientific supporting system of the digital economy;third,give full play to the radiation-driven effect of the digital economy on regional total factor productivity improvement and accelerate the inclusive role of digital technology spillover.Third,we should give full play to the role of the digital economy in regional total factor productivity improvement and accelerate the spillover of digital technology to inclusive innovation.Fourth,we should strengthen the organic integration of digital technology and enterprise operation and promote the synergistic development of the multifactor capacity of enterprises.This thesis may include the following three innovations in expanding the marginal contribution of research on the relationship between digital economy and total factor productivity: first,this paper constructs a systematic theoretical framework of digital economy affecting total factor productivity and broadens the relevant research perspectives and conclusions;second,this paper enriches the research related to regional coordination mechanism and further opens the digital economy acting on regional total factor productivity imbalance problem "Third,this paper further clarifies the characteristics and connotations of the digital economy in the context of the new era and deepens the understanding of the development level,regional characteristics and dynamic evolution laws of China’s digital economy on this basis.