An Empirical Study On The Impact Of Digital Economy On The Structural Upgrade Of Manufacturing Industry

The "Fourth Industrial Revolution" is in the ascendant,and a new round of technological revolution has swept through.The 20 th National Congress report formulated two major development strategies for the digital economy and manufacturing industry: on the one hand,the high-end,intelligent,and green manufacturing industry is the strategic goal of upgrading the manufacturing industry structure,and deep integration with the digital economy is its inherent requirement;On the other hand,the manufacturing industry,as the fundamental foundation and ballast of China’s economy,has become the main battlefield of the digital economy.Therefore,quantitatively measuring the development level of China’s digital economy and empirically analyzing the impact of the digital economy on the upgrading of manufacturing industry structure can not only provide theoretical basis and data support for expanding the practical scope of the digital economy,but also accelerate the upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry structure.This paper uses the panel data of 30 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government from 2015 to 2020 to study the impact of the digital economy on the upgrading and rationalization of the manufacturing structure: first,clarify the relevant concepts,sort out the direct action path and the intermediary action path based on the efficiency of labor factor allocation,and put forward relevant assumptions;Secondly,based on the projection pursuit method,the digital economy development index of 30 regions during the research period was calculated,and the spatiotemporal characteristics of China’s digital economy development were analyzed;Then,the fixed effect model and the mesomeric effect model are constructed to empirically analyze the overall effect of the digital economy on the upgrading of the manufacturing structure and the rationalization of the manufacturing industry.The regional heterogeneity impact analysis is conducted using sub samples from different regions,and the impact of the intermediary variable based on the efficiency of labor factor allocation is verified;Finally,based on the current development status of China’s digital economy and empirical research results,targeted suggestions are proposed.The main research conclusions of this article are as follows:(1)The development level of China’s digital economy is increasing year by year,showing a spatial pattern of "high in the east and low in the west" as a whole;(2)The development level of the digital economy significantly promotes the rationalization and upgrading of the manufacturing industry structure,with the positive promotion effect of the digital economy in the eastern region on the rationalization and upgrading of the manufacturing industry structure being significant;(3)The role of digital economy in the upgrading of manufacturing structure has some mesomeric effect.The development level of digital economy can significantly promote the flow of labor factors from low-end skilled manufacturing to high-end skilled manufacturing.Based on the above conclusions,specific measures for upgrading the manufacturing industry structure are proposed from four aspects: digital economy development carrier,digital industrialization,industrial digitization,and digital economy development environment;Based on the perspectives of enterprises and governments,propose suggestions for improving labor allocation that is suitable for the manufacturing industry structure.