IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/asieco/v98y2025ics1049007825000533.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can digital economy narrow the regional economic gap? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Jie
  • Lu, Hongyang
  • Du, Minzhe

Abstract

The scholarly discourse surrounding the influence of digital economy (DE) advancement on economic growth has been extensive, but only a few studies have examined it from an equity perspective. Based on the panel data of Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2020, this study constructs the relational data analytical paradigm to analyze the impact of DE spatial disequilibrium on regional economic gap (REG). The results show that there are notable regional disparities in both DE and economic development. Furthermore, the equilibrium improvement of DE can reduce REG, with the magnitude of this effect increasing, albeit negatively in the eastern region. Additionally, the study suggests that the equilibrium development of capital accumulation and industrial structure can also contribute to the reduction of REG. These findings suggest that promoting DE equilibrium development can be an effective strategy for narrowing REG.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Jie & Lu, Hongyang & Du, Minzhe, 2025. "Can digital economy narrow the regional economic gap? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s1049007825000533
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101929
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049007825000533
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101929?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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital economy; Regional difference; Theil index; Quadratic assignment procedure; JEL Classifications; O11; R12;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:asieco:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s1049007825000533. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.elsevier.com/locate/asieco .

    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.