Research On The Impact Of Digital Government Construction On Urban Economic Resilience

In the past 40 years of reform and opening-up,China’s economy has made proud achievements,but it has also faced shocks and challenges.On the one hand,with the deepening of economic globalization,China is increasingly connected with the global economy,and the international contagion of economic crisis and economic fluctuations has become inevitable.On the other hand,as a developing country,China still lags far behind the developed countries and faces many problems,such as weak independent innovation capacity,unreasonable economic structure,unbalanced regional economic development and so on.After entering the 21st century,China’s economy has suffered three major shocks.The first shock was the international financial crisis in 2008,which started with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in the United States and quickly spread to the world,which was a violent exogenous shock.The second shock was the fluctuating decline of economic growth since around 2013,which came from the effects of simultaneously dealing with the slowdown in economic growth,making difficult structural adjustments,and absorbing the effects of previous economic stimulus policies,which was a continuous endogenous shock.The third shock is the global COVID-19 outbreak at the end of 2019,which is a sudden public health event and a fierce,repeated and comprehensive shock.However,in the face of these huge shocks,China’s economy has not experienced sharp fluctuations,but has maintained a relatively stable growth rate,reflecting strong resilience and great potential.Why is China’s economy so resilient?Some scholars believe that the strong resilience of China’s economy comes from the benign interaction between the government and the market.In recent years,with the rapid development of digital technologies such as big data,cloud computing and the Internet of things,countries around the world are actively promoting the construction of digital government.The Chinese government is no exception.It has issued a series of policy documents,such as "The Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of the National Integrated Online Government Service Platform" and "The Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of digital Government",to guide and promote the government’s digital transformation.According to the policy documents issued by the central government,the construction of digital government is an inevitable requirement to promote the modernization of national governance capacity and governance level.It plays an important role in improving government functions,improving public service levels,and forming a benign interactive relationship between the government and the market.So,will digital government construction affect urban economic resilience?This is the core of this paper.Based on the above background,this paper attempts to study the relationship between digital government construction and urban economic resilience.Firstly,by summarizing previous studies,this paper defines the concepts of urban economic resilience and digital government,explains the measurement methods of urban economic resilience and digital government construction level,and analyzes the reality of urban economic resilience and digital government construction.Secondly,by constructing theoretical models and combing the relevant literature,this paper deeply expounds the direct impact of digital government construction on the economic resilience of the city and surrounding cities from the perspective of government governance ability,comprehensively expounds the indirect impact of digital government construction on the urban economic resilience from three aspects:technology effect,structure effect and allocation effect,and puts forward five main hypotheses and six secondary hypotheses based on theoretical analysis.Then,based on the panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2013 to 2019,using a variety of measurement methods,this paper empirically analyzes the specific impact of digital government construction on urban economic resilience after the shock of the three periods’ superposition effect,and tests the corresponding theoretical hypothesis.Finally,based on the results of theoretical and empirical analysis,this paper puts forward policy suggestions to enhance the urban economic resilience in China.The empirical analysis is the main content of this paper and the main source of the research conclusion.The relevant chapters examine the impact of digital government construction on urban economic resilience from the perspectives of technology effect,structure effect,allocation effect and "Broadband China" pilot.In Chapter 4 to Chapter 6,the empirical analysis is mainly carried out according to the following steps:Firstly,through the benchmark model and instrumental variable method,this paper empirically tests the direct impact of digital government construction and technology(structure,allocation)effect on urban economic resilience.Secondly,through the Spatial Durbin Model,this paper empirically tests the direct impact of digital government construction and techno logy(structure,allocation)effect on the economic resilience of surrounding cities.Thirdly,by observing the change of the coefficient of the core explanatory variable,constructing the interaction terms between core explanatory variable and intermediary variable,and conducting causal stepwise regression analysis,this paper empirically tests the indirect impact of digital government construction on urban economic resilience through technology(structure,allocation)effect.Fourthly,by grouping regression and constructing interactive items,this paper investigates the time difference and city difference of the impact of digital government construction and technology(structure,allocation)effect on urban economic resilience,and analyzes the reasons behind them.Finally,by replacing variables,eliminating outliers,deleting samples and replacing models,this paper tests the robustness of the previous regression results.Considering that the analytical paradigm is too single in Chapters 4 to Chapter 6,this paper takes the "Broadband China" policy as the starting point in Chapter 7,and uses multi-period DID to re test the theoretical hypotheses.Through theoretical and empirical analysis,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)In transition period,digital government construction directly enhances urban economic resilience.(2)Digital government construction can not only enhance the economic resilience of the city,but also enhance the economic resilience of surrounding cities through the spatial spillover effect of digital technology.(3)Digital government construction enhances urban economic resilience through technology effect.On the one hand,digital government construction reshapes the government business process through digital technology,improves the level of administrative supervision,reduces the phenomenon of official malfeasance,and thus enhances the resilience of urban economy.On the other hand,digital government construction optimizes the business environment through digital technology,improves the level of scientific and technological innovation,and thus enhances the resilience of urban economy.(4)Digital government construction enhances urban economic resilience through structure effect.On the one hand,digital government construction accelerates industrial digital transformation by opening government data,promotes industrial structure supererogation,and thus enhances urban economic resilience.On the other hand,digital government construction enhances the market function by establishing credit portraits,promotes digital industrialization development,improves industrial structure diversity,and thus enhances urban economic resilience.(5)Digital government construction enhances urban economic resilience through allocation effect.On the one hand,digital government construction improves the allocation efficiency of emergency resources by promoting the modernization of emergency management,and thus enhances urban economic resilience.On the other hand,digital government construction improves the allocation efficiency of factor resources by promoting the construction of digital infrastructure,and thus enhances urban economic resilience.(6)There are time differences in the impact of digital government construction on urban economic resilience.In the resistance period,the impact of digital government construction on urban economic resilience is not significant.In the recovery period,digital government construction significantly enhances urban economic resilience.Further research shows that this time difference mainly comes from the development level of digital economy.The higher the development level of digital economy in the city,the more significant the promotion effect of digital government construction on urban economic resilience.(7)There are city differences in the impact of digital government construction on urban economic resilience.The impact of digital government construction on economic resilience in big cities is more significant than that in small and medium-sized cities.Further research shows that this city difference mainly comes from the level of infrastructure construction.The higher the level of infrastructure construction in the city,the more significant the promotion effect of digital government construction on urban economic resilience.