IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v207y2024ics0040162524004025.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of the digital economy on the total factor productivity of manufacturing firms: Empirical evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Huanjie
  • Zhang, Yuan
  • Li, Yan

Abstract

The digital economy plays a pivotal role in driving the transformation of old and new energy sources and improving total factor productivity in China. This study focuses on Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Using the entropy weight method, the digital economy indexes are evaluated based on digital industrialization and industrial digitization. The panel fixed effect model and mediation effect model are utilized to quantitatively analyze the effects and mechanisms of the digital economy on total factor productivity. The findings suggest that the digital economy significantly enhances total factor productivity, primarily through mechanisms such as research and development (R&D) and innovation, alleviation of financing constraints, and economies of scale. The digital economy has a stronger impact on the total factor productivity of enterprises in the eastern region, the regions with high levels of traditional infrastructure development, high-competitive industries and non-state-owned enterprises. This study focuses on exploring the productivity effects of the digital economy in a more detailed manner. The findings of this study will provide valuable policy recommendations and insights for improving the efficiency of enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Huanjie & Zhang, Yuan & Li, Yan, 2024. "The impact of the digital economy on the total factor productivity of manufacturing firms: Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:207:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524004025
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162524004025
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123604?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dave Donaldson, 2018. "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Impact of Transportation Infrastructure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 899-934, April.
    2. Dale Jorgenson & Mun Ho & Jon Samuels & Kevin Stiroh, 2007. "Industry Origins of the American Productivity Resurgence," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 229-252.
    3. Wenjie Chen & Fariha Kamal, 2016. "The impact of information and communication technology adoption on multinational firm boundary decisions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(5), pages 563-576, June.
    4. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & Philipp Schnabl & James Vickery, 2019. "The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1854-1899.
    5. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Christophe Rault & Anamaria Diana Sova & Robert Sova, 2015. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Evidence from 10 New European Union Members," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 48-60, January.
    6. Philippe Aghion & Benjamin F. Jones & Charles I. Jones, 2018. "Artificial Intelligence and Economic Growth," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, pages 237-282, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Henkel, Joachim, 2006. "Selective revealing in open innovation processes: The case of embedded Linux," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 953-969, September.
    8. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1403-1448.
    9. Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther & Qian, Nancy, 2020. "On the road: Access to transportation infrastructure and economic growth in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    10. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2018. "The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(6), pages 1488-1542, June.
    11. Sun, Zhe & Zhao, Liang & Kaur, Puneet & Islam, Nazrul & Dhir, Amandeep, 2023. "Theorizing the relationship between the digital economy and firm productivity: The idiosyncrasies of firm-specific contexts," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    12. Loren Brandt & Johannes Van Biesebroeck & Luhang Wang & Yifan Zhang, 2017. "WTO Accession and Performance of Chinese Manufacturing Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2784-2820, September.
    13. Yan Li & Yanjiang Wu & Yaqing Chen & Qingbo Huang, 2021. "The influence of foreign direct investment and trade opening on green total factor productivity in the equipment manufacturing industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(57), pages 6641-6654, December.
    14. Rudra P. Pradhan & Mak B. Arvin & John H. Hall & Mahendhiran Nair, 2016. "Innovation, financial development and economic growth in Eurozone countries," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(16), pages 1141-1144, November.
    15. Luo, Kang & Liu, Yaobin & Chen, Pei-Fen & Zeng, Mingli, 2022. "Assessing the impact of digital economy on green development efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    16. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2014. "US Food Aid and Civil Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1630-1666, June.
    17. Derrien, François & Kecskés, Ambrus & Mansi, Sattar A., 2016. "Information asymmetry, the cost of debt, and credit events: Evidence from quasi-random analyst disappearances," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 295-311.
    18. Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Constructing Instruments for Regressions with Measurement Error when no Additional Data are Available, with an Application to Patents and R&D," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1201-1214, September.
    19. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 1993. "Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262570971, December.
    20. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    21. Singh, Lakhwinder, 2004. "Technological Progress, Structural Change and Productivity Growth in Manufacturing Sector of South Korea," MPRA Paper 99, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    22. Lyu, Yanwei & Xiao, Xuan & Zhang, Jinning, 2024. "Does the digital economy enhance green total factor productivity in China? The evidence from a national big data comprehensive pilot zone," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 183-196.
    23. Gary S. Hansen & Charles W. L. Hill, 1991. "Are institutional investors myopic? A time‐series study of four technology‐driven industries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, January.
    24. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fangli He & Hongzhen Qin, 2025. "Research on Impact of Digital Economy on Real Economy Based on Perspective of Coupling and Coordination of Manufacturing and Service Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Hao Xu & Peilin Wang & Kai Ding, 2024. "Transforming Agriculture: Empirical Insights into How the Digital Economy Elevates Agricultural Productivity in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Huangying Gu & Guanyu Guo & Chengming Li, 2024. "Treating the Symptoms as Well as the Root Causes: How the Digital Economy Can Mitigate the Negative Impacts of Land Resource Mismatches on Urban Ecological Resilience," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Aiqin Zhang & Wenjie Zhang & Xiaoqiang Guo, 2024. "The Digital Economy, Integration of Productive Services and Manufacturing, and High-Quality Development of the Manufacturing Sector: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-22, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Junjun Tang & Xing Zhao, 2023. "Does the new digital infrastructure improve total factor productivity?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 895-916, October.
    2. Hanley, Douglas & Li, Jiancheng & Wu, Mingqin, 2022. "High-speed railways and collaborative innovation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui & Zhang, Junsen, 2023. "Road expansion, allocative efficiency, and pro-competitive effect of transport infrastructure: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Liu, Xiaoying & Wang, Yujing & Li, Meng & Gao, Haoyu, 2024. "The importance of speed to corporate financial asset holdings: Evidence from high-speed rail," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Das, Abhiman & Ghani, Ejaz & Grover, Arti & Kerr, William & Nanda, Ramana, 2024. "JUE insight: Infrastructure and Finance: Evidence from India’s GQ highway network," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    6. Maria D. Tito & Ruoying Wang, 2017. "Exporting and Frictions in Input Markets : Evidence from Chinese Data," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-077, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. Xiang, Junyi & Zhang, Hongxiang & Dang, Dingyu & Guan, Jing, 2023. "Involuntary political connections and private firms' tax avoidance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Guoge Yang & Feng Deng & Yifei Wang & Xianhong Xiang, 2022. "Digital Paradox: Platform Economy and High-Quality Economic Development—New Evidence from Provincial Panel Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, February.
    9. Liu, Yajie & Cui, Lijuan & Xiong, Yanyan & Yao, Xianguo, 2023. "Does the development of the Internet improve the allocative efficiency of production factors? Evidence from surveys of Chinese manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 161-174.
    10. Wang, Jingwen & Shen, Guangjun & Tang, Dunzhe, 2021. "Does tax deduction relax financing constraints? Evidence from China's value-added tax reform," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    11. He, Xin & Xu, Xinwei & Shen, Yu, 2023. "How climate change affects enterprise inventory management —— From the perspective of regional traffic," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. Lin Gan & Takahashi Yoshifumi & Nomura Hisako & Yabe Mitsuyasu, 2024. "The short‐ and long‐term impacts of overinvestments on the profitability of agri‐food processing firms in China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 227-247, January.
    13. Zhang, Haiyan & Lu, Fangwen & Wang, Dehua, 2024. "Delayed tax rebates, cash flow, and corporate spending: A quasi-experiment from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Bu, Ya & Du, Xin & Wang, Yuting & Liu, Shuyu & Tang, Min & Li, Hui, 2024. "Digital inclusive finance: A lever for SME financing?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    15. Penglong Li & Xuan Ye, 2024. "Research on the promotion effect and mechanisms of digital empowerment of food enterprises," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 70(2), pages 60-72.
    16. Figueroa, Camila & Iberti, Gonzalo & Riutort, Julio & Wagner, Rodrigo, 2023. "Do firms that state they are financially constrained tend to reinvest more of their profits?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    17. Kexian Zhang & Xiaoying Liu & Min Hong, 2021. "Discretionary Effort on Green Technology Innovation: How Chinese Enterprises Act when Facing Financing Constraints," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-19, December.
    18. Qihang Xue & Caiquan Bai & Weiwei Xiao, 2022. "Fintech and corporate green technology innovation: Impacts and mechanisms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3898-3914, December.
    19. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Xu & Zhang, Rui & Zhang, Xun, 2022. "The impact of road infrastructure on economic circulation: Market expansion and input cost saving," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    20. Fang, Yuxia & Li, Yuhua, 2024. "How does internet finance affect firm exports? Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:207:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524004025. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.