IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v13y2025i9p253-d1734080.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research on the Mechanism of Digital–Real Economic Integration Enhancing Industrial Structure Upgrading

Author

Listed:
  • Daojin Cheng

    (School of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276826, China)

  • Yu Zhao

    (School of Economics, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao 276826, China)

  • Yuanyuan Guo

    (School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract

The integration of the digital and real economies (DRI) is an inevitable trend in future economic growth. This study measures DRI levels across 30 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2022 using a coupling coordination model with panel data and empirically examines DRI’s impact on industrial structure upgrading (ISU) through fixed-effects models, mediation effect models, and panel threshold models. The findings reveal that (1) DRI promotes industrial structure upgrading, a conclusion that remains valid under robustness tests and endogeneity tests; (2) DRI can facilitate ISU by enhancing consumption levels, correcting factor distortions, and accelerating the marketization process; (3) there exists a threshold effect, with a positive effect of DRI on ISU based on the level of digital economy and the scale of the real economy as threshold variables; (4) the impact of DRI on ISU differs across different regions due to differences in policy support and resource allocation; (5) ISU has a significant spatial spillover effect, as shown by spatial econometric analysis. These conclusions offer a new perspective, practical policy implications for China’s high-quality economic development, and strategic insights to enhance industrial competitiveness in the global value chain.

Suggested Citation

  • Daojin Cheng & Yu Zhao & Yuanyuan Guo, 2025. "Research on the Mechanism of Digital–Real Economic Integration Enhancing Industrial Structure Upgrading," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:9:p:253-:d:1734080
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/9/253/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/9/253/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:9:p:253-:d:1734080. 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: 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.