Research On The Impact Of Digital Economy Development On Regional Innovation

As an important driving force for a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation,the digital economy has had a profound impact on the economy and society.It is reshaping the economic development model and becoming a new highland for competition among countries in the world.Since the 18 th CPC National Congress,China has attached great importance to the development of the digital economy and has elevated it to a national strategy.In policy documents such as the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" for the Development of Digital Economy and the "2035 Vision",it has been mentioned many times to accelerate the development of digital economy,constantly strengthen,optimize and expand China’s digital economy.In addition,as China’s economy has shifted from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development,the economic driving force has gradually changed from a traditional factor-driven to innovation-driven,and the importance of innovation in economic and social development has been further enhanced.It can be seen that the development of the digital economy and the enhancement of innovation capabilities have received unprecedented attention in China.At the same time,the digital economy,relying on modern information technologies such as the Internet,cloud computing,blockchain,artificial intelligence,has also brought new opportunities for regional innovation.The development of the digital economy has greatly improved the efficiency of innovation resource allocation,reduced the cost of innovation activities,and expanded innovation knowledge spillovers,and has a profound impact on regional innovation through the process of industrial digitization and digital industrialization.Under this background,the comprehensive analysis of China’s digital economy and regional innovation level and the exploration of the impact of digital economy on regional innovation have important theoretical and practical significance for further understanding the connotation of digital economy and regional innovation,further grasping the current situation of China’s digital economy and regional innovation development and giving play to the innovation effect of digital economy.This article aims to explore the impact of China’s digital economy development on regional innovation,and conduct empirical tests on the basis of literature review and theoretical analysis.By constructing the evaluation index of China’s digital economy and regional innovation at the urban level,the paper uses the entropy weight method and Dagum Gini coefficient to measure and analyze the temporal evolution characteristics,regional differences and sources of China’s digital economy and regional innovation level;The empirical analysis is based on the panel data of 285 cities in China from 2011 to 2019;This paper explores the benchmark impact of digital economic development on regional innovation by constructing a fixed effect model;From the perspectives of easing financing constraints and promoting economic growth,this paper discusses the mechanism path of digital economy development affecting regional innovation;From the perspective of marketization,intellectual property protection,and regional innovation differences,this paper discusses the heterogeneous impact of digital economy development on regional innovation;Taking the digital economy as the threshold variable,this paper explores the nonlinear impact of the development of digital economy on regional innovation by constructing a panel threshold model;The spatial autocorrelation between regional innovation and digital economy is discussed through exploratory spatial data analysis;The spatial spillover effect of digital economy development on regional innovation is analyzed by constructing a spatial econometric model;The robustness test is carried out from the perspectives of replacing the explained variables,replacing the core explanatory variables,alleviating endogenous problems,and eliminating extreme values.The research shows that from 2011-2019,the level of China’s digital economy has shown a trend of steady improvement,and the overall difference in the level of digital economy between cities showed a trend of narrowing.The contribution of regional differences and super-variable density differences are the main sources of the overall difference in the level of digital economy;China’s regional innovation level also showed a steady trend of improvement during the study sample period.The overall difference of innovation level between cities showed a trend of narrowing.The contribution of regional differences is the main source of the overall difference of regional innovation level;The development of digital economy can significantly promote regional innovation and has passed a series of robustness tests;Relieving regional financing constraints and promoting regional economic growth are important ways for digital economic development to promote regional innovation;The impact of the development of digital economy on regional innovation is based on the heterogeneity of marketization,the protection of intellectual property rights,and regional innovation differences;The impact of digital economic development on regional innovation has the characteristics of "U" curve,which falls first and then rises;Both digital economy and regional innovation show significant positive spatial autocorrelation,and digital economy can not only improve the level of innovation in the city,but also have significant positive spatial spillover effect.