Research On The Impact Of Digital Economy On The Upgrading Of Regional Manufacturing Structure

Since the beginning of the 21st century,the rapid development of information technology,exemplified by cloud computing,artificial intelligence,blockchain and metaverse,has led to great changes in the form of economic and social development.Integrating with various industries across borders through new technologies,new factors and new business forms,digital economy has gradually become an important engine for restructuring resource factors and promoting industrial structure upgrading.With the deepening of reform and opening-up policy,there has been a leap of progress in Chinese manufacturing industry which gradually established a complete category,complete supporting and independent industrial system,especially in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.The two regions are always at the forefront of reform and development.However,in recent years,the severe challenges faced by domestic and international economic environment constantly force these cities to upgrade their manufacturing structure to adapt to the current economic development.Therefore,it is of great research significance to grasp the development opportunity of digital economy in order to realize the transformation of manufacturing industry from focusing on speed to focusing on quality.Based on this,the panel data of 36 cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations from 2011 to 2020 is selected as the paper object.Firstly,the entropy method is used to construct the digital economy development index from four dimensions of digital economy infrastructure,digital industrialization,industrial digitization and digital governance to analyze the development status of the digital economy in the two regions.Secondly,the upgrading level of manufacturing structure is measured by constructing an index of manufacturing structure upgrading and rationalization.Finally,with the support of economic growth theory and industrial structure upgrading theory,the influence degree,regional differences and transmission path of digital economy on the structure upgrading of manufacturing industry are explored through the construction of theories and empirical models.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows.Firstly,from 2011 to 2020,the development of digital economy in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations has steadily improved with an obvious stage growth.And the urban agglomerations form a geographical pattern of "strong in the north and weak in the south".Secondly,the manufacturing structure has also an obvious upgrading trend in the past 10 years,showing a "weak in the north and strong in the south" and a multicore layout.Thirdly,both theoretical model and empirical results show that digital economy is conducive to promoting the upgrading of manufacturing structure,but the degree of impact on the two urban agglomerations has obvious regional heterogeneity.Fourthly,by introducing RLP and total TFP variables,it verifies the establishment of the influence path of digital economy to promote the upgrading of manufacturing structure in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations through technology spillover effect and labor productivity effect.As a result,this paper puts forward some suggestions as follows.Firstly,give full play to the positive effects of the digital economy.Secondly,practice different policy according to local conditions.Thirdly,pay more attention to promote technology spillover.Fourthly,explore the mode of personnel training,improve manufacturing labor productivity.