IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i16p6738-d1451182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatiotemporal Distribution and Regional Imbalance of China’s Digital Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Ruina Fan

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP), Beijing 100041, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Chong Nie

    (Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Yuanhao Zhao

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP), Beijing 100041, China)

  • Chunxu Hao

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP), Beijing 100041, China)

  • Chen Peng

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP), Beijing 100041, China)

Abstract

The digital economy is an important driving force for promoting national economic growth and achieving high-quality economic transformation, and is a key force in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper measures the digital economy development level of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2021 utilizing the entropy of weighting approach, and in order to further reveal its intrinsic laws and differences, it uses three-dimensional kernel density analysis, the Dagum Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and cold hot spot analysis to explore the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the digital economy and its regional imbalance. The empirical results show that ① China’s digital economy has been steadily increasing, spatially showing the characteristics of gradual decrease from east to west and from coast to inland, with obvious spatial agglomeration characteristics and an increasing trend. ② There are obvious regional imbalances in the digital economy, with the southeast coastal region leading significantly. ③ The overall regional differences are large but reduced, mainly from intra-regional differences, the and inter-regional contribution is low. The research in this paper provides data support for revealing the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of digital economic development and provides new path support for the balanced development of China’s regional digital economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruina Fan & Chong Nie & Yuanhao Zhao & Chunxu Hao & Chen Peng, 2024. "Spatiotemporal Distribution and Regional Imbalance of China’s Digital Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-21, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6738-:d:1451182
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6738/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6738/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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).
    2. Pan, Wenrong & Xie, Tao & Wang, Zhuwang & Ma, Lisha, 2022. "Digital economy: An innovation driver for total factor productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 303-311.
    3. Liang Liu & Yuhan Zhang & Xiujuan Gong & Mengyue Li & Xue Li & Donglin Ren & Pan Jiang, 2022. "Impact of Digital Economy Development on Carbon Emission Efficiency: A Spatial Econometric Analysis Based on Chinese Provinces and Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-21, November.
    4. Shahzad, Umer & Ferraz, Diogo & Nguyen, Huu-Huan & Cui, Lianbiao, 2022. "Investigating the spill overs and connectedness between financial globalization, high-tech industries and environmental footprints: Fresh evidence in context of China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Feng, Wei & Sun, Shujun & Yuan, Hang, 2023. "Research on the efficiency of factor allocation in the pilot free trade zones," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 727-745.
    2. Umair Kashif & Junguo Shi & Sihan Li & Qinqin Wu & Qiuya Song & Shanshan Dou & Mengjie Wei & Snovia Naseem, 2024. "Navigating the digital divide: unraveling the impact of ICT usage and supply on SO2 emissions in China’s Yangtze River Delta," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Wang, Weilong & Yang, Xiaodong & Cao, Jianhong & Bu, Wenchao & Dagestani, Abd Alwahed & Adebayo, Tomiwa Sunday & Dilanchiev, Azer & Ren, Siyu, 2022. "Energy internet, digital economy, and green economic growth: Evidence from China," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 1(2).
    4. Wenjing Zhang & Bin Sun & Zaijun Li & Suleman Sarwar, 2023. "The Impact of the Digital Economy on Industrial Eco-Efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Urban Agglomeration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Zhao, Jun, 2022. "The impact of digital economy on energy transition across the globe: The mediating role of government governance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    6. Sun, Chuanwang & Khan, Anwar & Xue, Juntao & Huang, Xiaoyong, 2024. "Are digital economy and financial structure driving renewable energy technology innovations: A major eight countries perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    7. Yi, Jiahui & Dai, Sheng & Li, Lin & Cheng, Jinhua, 2024. "How does digital economy development affect renewable energy innovation?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    8. Luo, Jiahui & Dong, Jingrong & Tan, Zhixiong & Zhang, Haitao & Zhang, Wenqing, 2024. "Relatedness, digital economy and renewable energy product evolution—based on product space perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    9. Tian, Lichuan & Sun, Kai & Yang, Jie & Zhao, Yang, 2024. "Does digital economy affect corporate ESG performance? New insights from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 964-980.
    10. Rui Shen & Junhong Li & Yuan Peng, 2024. "Analysis of the Development Patterns and Improvement Strategies of China’s Digital Economy—Drawing Insights from Data Collected across 227 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Rashid Latief & Sohail Ahmad Javeed, 2024. "The Spatial Effects of Digital Economy on Sustainable Urban Economic Development in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-17, October.
    12. Yang, Senmiao & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Jiang, Qingzhe, 2023. "A path towards China's energy justice: How does digital technology innovation bring about a just revolution?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    13. Congqi Wang & Rui Zhang & Haslindar Ibrahim & Pengzhen Liu, 2023. "Can the Digital Economy Enable Carbon Emission Reduction: Analysis of Mechanisms and China’s Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-20, June.
    14. Huang, Junbing & Wang, Yajun & Luan, Bingjiang & Zou, Hong & Wang, Jun, 2023. "The energy intensity reduction effect of developing digital economy: Theory and empirical evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Zhaohui Yan & Mingli Wang & Yumeng Sun & Zihui Nan, 2023. "The Impact of Research and Development Investment on Total Factor Productivity of Animal Husbandry Enterprises: Evidence from Listed Companies in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, September.
    16. Ran, Qiying & Yang, Xiaodong & Yan, Hongchuan & Xu, Yang & Cao, Jianhong, 2023. "Natural resource consumption and industrial green transformation: Does the digital economy matter?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Shunbin Zhong & Huafu Shen & Ziheng Niu & Yang Yu & Lin Pan & Yaojun Fan & Atif Jahanger, 2022. "Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-23, November.
    18. Qiangyi Li & Jiexiao Ge & Mingyu Huang & Xiaoyu Wu & Houbao Fan, 2024. "Uncovering the Triple Synergy of New-Type Urbanization, Greening and Digitalization in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-24, July.
    19. Zhipeng Yu & Yi Liu & Taihua Yan & Ming Zhang, 2024. "Carbon emission efficiency in the age of digital economy: New insights on green technology progress and industrial structure distortion," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4039-4057, July.
    20. Kun Wang & Bing Chen & Yuhong Li, 2024. "Technological, process or managerial innovation? How does digital transformation affect green innovation in industrial enterprises?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 1-32, February.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6738-:d:1451182. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.