| "The 14 th Five-Year Plan stresses that "by promoting the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy,we will empower traditional industries to transform and upgrade,give rise to new industries and new business models,and strengthen the engine of economic development".The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19 th CPC Central Committee also proposed that "becoming a manufacturing power is the top priority at this stage".For the manufacturing industry,which is a pillar of the national economy,it is crucial to use the digital economy to change its own form,broaden its organisational boundaries and realise the improvement of all factors.Big data,cloud computing and blockchain provide technical support for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry,which achieves transformation and upgrading and high-quality development through continuous integration with the digital economy.Therefore,it is particularly important to analyse and study the relationship between the development of the digital economy and the total factor productivity of the manufacturing industry.By studying the influence mechanism between the two,we can clarify the path through which the development of the digital economy affects the total factor productivity of the manufacturing industry,and can better help China’s manufacturing industry complete its digital transformation.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between digital economy development and total factor productivity in manufacturing.Firstly,by reading the literature,we summarise and sort out the influence mechanism and put forward the research hypothesis that digital economy development has a facilitating effect on total factor productivity in manufacturing.Secondly,this paper measures and analyses the level of digital economy development and manufacturing total factor productivity,tests the relationship between them through an econometric model,and tests the mechanism of the three paths to further explore the heterogeneous influence of the level of digital economy development on manufacturing total factor productivity.The main contents and conclusions of this paper are the following four aspects.(1)Measuring and analysing the level of development of the digital economyThis paper draws on the index systems published by the government,research institutions and scholars to measure the development level of digital economy,and constructs an evaluation system for digital economy development from four dimensions:digital infrastructure,digital development environment,digital industry development and industry digitalisation level.Three primary indicators and 13 secondary indicators are used to measure the development level of digital economy in each province.A horizontal and vertical comparison of the digital economy sub-indices and comprehensive scores reveals that the gap between the eastern and the central and western regions in terms of the comprehensive digital economy scores and the scores of various sub-indices is larger,especially in the digital industry sub-index,where the gap is gradually widening,and the "digital divide" between the eastern provinces is more obvious than that between the central and western provinces.(2)Measuring and analysing total factor productivity in manufacturingThis paper uses the OP method to measure the total factor productivity of the manufacturing industry,using business income as an output indicator and the number of fixed assets and employees as output indicators.The research results show that although there are fluctuations in China’s manufacturing total factor productivity,it is generally on the rise during the sample period,with the total factor productivity of manufacturing in the eastern coastal provinces generally higher than that in the central and western provinces,while the central provinces are generally higher than that in the western provinces.In terms of the annual growth rate of total factor productivity,it is higher in the central than in the west,and in turn higher in the west than in the east;the total factor productivity of technology-intensive manufacturing is greater than that of labourand capital-intensive manufacturing;and the gap between the total factor productivity of manufacturing in state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises is gradually decreasing.(3)Exploring the mechanism of the digital economy’s effect on total factor productivity in manufacturingThis paper takes the overall impact of the digital economy on the efficiency of total factor productivity in the manufacturing industry as a starting point,introduces digitalisation into the production process,and explains the relationship between the digital economy and total factor productivity in the manufacturing industry through a model.Through literature reading and qualitative analysis,it is found that the digital economy can have an impact on total factor productivity in manufacturing through three paths,namely the technological innovation path,capital deepening and human capital path.(4)Empirical analysis of the impact of digital economy development on total factor productivity in the manufacturing industry(1)In the benchmark regression,the four dimensions of digital infrastructure environment sub-index,digital industry sub-index,digital integration sub-index and digital economy comprehensive development level all contribute significantly to the improvement of total factor productivity in the manufacturing industry.Among them,the digital industry sub-index has the greatest impact on the total factor productivity of the manufacturing industry.(2)The impact channel test shows that the technological innovation path,the capital deepening path and the human capital path are the important paths through which the digital economy affects the total factor productivity of the manufacturing industry.(3)There are regional differences in the effect of digital economy development on the improvement of total factor productivity in the manufacturing industry,and the effect of the comprehensive development level of digital economy on the improvement of total factor productivity in the manufacturing industry is more obvious in regions with developed digital economy.(4)Further refining the heterogeneity conditions,the degree of impact of the digital economy on different types of manufacturing industries varies greatly: the digital economy has the strongest effect on total factor productivity enhancement in technology-intensive manufacturing industries.For different types of enterprises,the digital economy has a more positive boosting effect on non-state enterprises as well as small-scale enterprises.Finally,the above findings are combined to provide constructive suggestions for improving the total factor productivity rate in the manufacturing industry based on the development of the digital economy,identifying the characteristics of different industries and different enterprises and making targeted recommendations. |
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