Research On The Development Of China’s High-Tech Industry Driven By Digital Economy

High-tech industry is a significant part of China’s manufacturing industry and has a prominent leading role in the development of industry.With the coming of technological revolution,the global economy is in a new period of digital transformation.The digital economy,a new economic form,is rapidly integrated into the social production and digital technology has been used widely.The scale of China’s high-tech industry is expanding but showing the characteristics of "high input,low output".Under the new situation,it is very important and urgent to build a strong digital manufacturing country.Based on this background,in order to explore the influence of digital economy on the development of high-tech industry in China,this paper firstly defines the connotation of high-tech industry and digital economy,and from two perspectives of "quantity" and "quality",explains the theoretical mechanism in detail of how high-tech industry is driven by digital economy.Then,this paper constructs a comprehensive index system of digital economy,with two dimensions of digital industrialization and industrial digitization as the two primary indicators and with digital economy development,digital foundation,digital application and digital integration as the secondary indicators.A total of 14 variables are selected for the subdivided indicators and the entropy value method is used to measure the development level of digital economy of each province in China from 2011 to 2020.The results are followed by empirical analysis to verify the influence mechanism of digital economy on the development of high-tech industries in terms of industrial scale and industrial innovation respectively,and to explore the non-linear effect as well.At the same time,this paper also explores the impact of digital economy on the development of high-tech industries by different regions or industries.Finally,based on the research findings,this paper makes relevant policy suggestions according to China’s national conditions.The research results show that: first,according to the measurement results of digital economy,from the national level,with the increasing years,China’s digital economy index grows steadily and China’s digital economy still has a lot of room for development.From the regional level,the eastern region leads the development of digital economy,the central region is the second and the western region is the last.From the analysis of provinces by echelon,there are 4 leading provinces in the first echelon,9 in the second and 17 in the third.Second,the digital economy can effectively promote the growth of high-tech industry scale,in which the rationalization of industrial structure serves as a possible channel.There are heterogeneous differences in the impact of digital economy on the scale of high-tech industries in the east,middle and west regions,as well as heterogeneous differences in the subdivided industries.The digital economy has the largest positive promotion effect on medical instrumentation and instrumentation manufacturing,followed by electronic and communication equipment manufacturing,and then pharmaceutical manufacturing.There is a single threshold effect of transportation infrastructure construction and outbound direct investment in the digital economy affecting the scale of high-tech industries,and the degree of transportation infrastructure construction and foreign direct investment in different regions,then the digital economy affects the scale of high-tech industries to different degrees.Third,the digital economy can effectively enhance the innovation level of high-tech industries,in which the technology-based talent pool serves as a possible channel.There are heterogeneous differences in the impact of digital economy on innovation of high-tech industry in east,middle and west regions,and there is a single threshold effect in the number of high-tech industry enterprises and R&D expenditure of high-tech industry when digital economy affects innovation of high-tech industry,and the degree to which digital economy affects innovation of high-tech industry differs in different regions in terms of the number of high-tech industry enterprises and R&D expenditure of high-tech industry.Finally,combined with the empirical analysis,this paper puts forward relevant policy recommendations at two levels of industry scale and industry innovation.Compared with the existing literature,the innovation of this paper has three points: first,this paper narrows down the industry field and focuses on high-tech industries,and analyzes the impact of digital economy on the scale and innovation of high-tech industries from the perspective of "quantity" and "quality",which provides a new vision for research in this field and broadens the existing literature.Second,starting from my country’s definition of the digital economy,this paper designs an index system from three aspects: digital foundation,digital application,and digital integration,covering the two main contents of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization in the development of digital economy,and further improves the integrity and comparability of the index system.Third,through empirical testing,this paper finds that the rationalization of industrial structure and the reserve of scientific and technological talents are effective channels for the digital economy to promote the expansion of high-tech industries and the innovation of high-tech industries,respectively.