IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i19p14289-d1249002.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Digital Infrastructure Improve Urban Economic Resilience? Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jifeng Zhang

    (School of Business, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China)

  • Zirui Yang

    (School of Business, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China)

  • Bing He

    (School of Business, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China)

Abstract

Under the pressure exerted by COVID-19 and geopolitical conflicts, establishing how to enhance urban economic resilience and cope with external risks has become the focus of many studies. This study considers the “Broadband China” program as a quasi-natural experiment and uses panel data from 106 Chinese cities between 2011 and 2020 to explore the influence of digital infrastructure on urban economic resilience through a difference-in-differences (DID) approach. The results are as follows: (1) Digital infrastructure improves urban economic resilience, and the influence differs by time and region. (2) Economic vitality, industrial structure upgrading, and industrial structure rationalization either moderate or mediate the impact of the digital infrastructure on economic resilience. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of how digital infrastructure and economic resilience are related.

Suggested Citation

  • Jifeng Zhang & Zirui Yang & Bing He, 2023. "Does Digital Infrastructure Improve Urban Economic Resilience? Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-21, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14289-:d:1249002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14289/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/19/14289/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2019. "Automation and New Tasks: How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    3. Ron Martin & Ben Gardiner, 2019. "The resilience of cities to economic shocks: A tale of four recessions (and the challenge of Brexit)," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(4), pages 1801-1832, August.
    4. Hausmann, Ricardo & Rodrik, Dani, 2003. "Economic development as self-discovery," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 603-633, December.
    5. Zaheer Allam & David Jones, 2021. "Future (post-COVID) digital, smart and sustainable cities in the wake of 6G: Digital twins, immersive realities and new urban economies," Post-Print hal-03477845, HAL.
    6. Boschma, Ron & Capone, Gianluca, 2015. "Institutions and diversification: Related versus unrelated diversification in a varieties of capitalism framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1902-1914.
    7. Muhammad, Sulaman & Pan, Yanchun & Agha, Mujtaba Hassan & Umar, Muhammad & Chen, Siyuan, 2022. "Industrial structure, energy intensity and environmental efficiency across developed and developing economies: The intermediary role of primary, secondary and tertiary industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    8. Martin Feldstein & James H. Stock, 1994. "The Use of a Monetary Aggregate to Target Nominal GDP," NBER Chapters, in: Monetary Policy, pages 7-69, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Ron Martin, 2012. "Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and recessionary shocks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-32, January.
    10. Liao, Hailin & Wang, Bin & Li, Baibing & Weyman-Jones, Tom, 2016. "ICT as a general-purpose technology: The productivity of ICT in the United States revisited," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 10-25.
    11. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    12. Perrings, Charles, 2006. "Resilience and sustainable development," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 417-427, August.
    13. Allam, Zaheer & Jones, David S., 2021. "Future (post-COVID) digital, smart and sustainable cities in the wake of 6G: Digital twins, immersive realities and new urban economies," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    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. Yujin Lu & Xingmeng Xu & Gaoru Zhu & Yuting Peng & Yi Li & Xueyan Zhao, 2024. "Land Space and High-Speed Transportation Coordinated Development Evaluation in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-27, October.
    2. Xiaoting Lv & Ziang Wu & Yuan Sui, 2025. "Understanding the Dynamics of Urban Shrinkage and the Impact on Innovation in China: A Comprehensive Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 6281-6314, June.
    3. Tingting Sun & Muhammad Asraf bin Abdullah, 2025. "Technological Innovation and Industrial Upgrading in China’s Automotive Industry: The Dual Mechanisms of Global Value Chain Mediation and Industrial Agglomeration Moderation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-39, October.
    4. Frances Ifeoma Ukonze & Antoni Moore & Greg Leonard & Ben Daniel, 2025. "Assessing the Validity of a Green Infrastructure Conceptual Framework for Urban Transport Planning: Insights for Building Resilient Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-20, June.
    5. Liu, Shuwen & Li, Youli & Shen, Zhihan & Yu, Jinyi & Xu, Zhaoyi, 2024. "The impact of population agglomeration on economic resilience: Evidence from 280 cities in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Qing Zhao & Chih-Hung Yuan, 2025. "Does Fiscal Vertical Imbalance Enhance the Economic Resilience of Chinese Cities?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-17, March.
    7. Kun Chao & Shixue Wang & Meijia Wang, 2025. "Human Capital Investment, Technological Innovation, and Resilience of Chinese High-End Manufacturing Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, January.
    8. Mandi Tian & Zuoren Sun, 2024. "Does the Innovative City Pilot Policy Improve Urban Resilience? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-27, November.
    9. Sanee MohammadEbrahimzadeh & Datis Khajeheian & Taher Roshandel Arbatani & Somayeh Labafi & Samad Sepasgozar, 2025. "Sustainable Knowledge-Based Enterprise Products Using AI-Powered Social Media for Enhancing Brand Equity: A Scientometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-39, September.
    10. Lianying Fu & Xu Han & Jizong Peng, 2025. "The impact of innovation-driven policies on urban resilience," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    11. Xiaoyou Wang & Jiahe Tian & Enze Liu, 2025. "Enhancing the Resilience of Intercity Transit System by Integrated Multimodal Emergency Dispatching and Passenger Assignment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-18, June.
    12. Deyin Zhang & Daiyin Jiang & Bing He, 2025. "Empowering Agricultural Economic Resilience with Smart Supply Chain: Theoretical Mechanism and Action Path," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-19, March.
    13. Ling Wang & Jianjun Su & Hailan Yang & Can Xie, 2024. "Multidimensional Measurement and Temporal and Spatial Interaction Characteristics of Rural E-Commerce Development Capacity in the Context of Rural Revitalization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-25, November.
    14. Zhiqiang Zhang & Yifan Bai, 2024. "Research on Whether Quality Policies Can Promote the High-Quality Development of China’s Manufacturing Industry and Its Configuration Paths in the Context of Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-31, 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. Tom Broekel & Lars Mewes, 2017. "Analyzing the impact of R&D policy on regional diversification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1726, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2017.
    2. Yigong Gao, 2025. "Looking for the Impact of Entrepreneurship on Regional Economic Resilience in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Bahar, Dany & Rosenow, Samuel & Stein, Ernesto & Wagner, Rodrigo, 2019. "Export take-offs and acceleration: Unpacking cross-sector linkages in the evolution of comparative advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 48-60.
    4. Li, Chengyou & Zheng, Chunji & Liu, Mengxun & Wang, Zeru, 2024. "Digital economy spillover on energy saving and emission reduction: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    5. Jeffrey Frankel, 2014. "Mauritius: African Success Story," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume IV: Sustainable Growth, pages 295-342, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Tapio Riepponen & Mikko Moilanen & Jaakko Simonen, 2023. "Themes of resilience in the economics literature: A topic modeling approach," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 326-356, April.
    7. Roberto Antonietti & Ron Boschma, 2021. "Social capital, resilience, and regional diversification in Italy [Social capital, innovation and growth: evidence from Europe]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(3), pages 762-777.
    8. Na Lu & Tiantian Shan & Wen Li & Xuan Liu & Weidong Wang, 2025. "Does the Digital Economy Promote Green Land Use Efficiency?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-22, August.
    9. Xinyu Zhang & Congying Tian, 2024. "Measurement and Influencing Factors of Regional Economic Resilience in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Arnault Pachot & Adélaïde Albouy-Kissi & Benjamin Albouy-Kissi & Frédéric Chausse, 2022. "Identify Potential Diversification to Companies through Collaborative Filtering," Post-Print hal-03666906, HAL.
    11. Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2005. "Coordination Failure, Clusters, and Microeconomic Interventions," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2005), pages 1-41.
    12. Francis, Royce & Bekera, Behailu, 2014. "A metric and frameworks for resilience analysis of engineered and infrastructure systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 90-103.
    13. Nomaler, Önder & Verspagen, Bart, 2022. "Some new views on product space and related diversification," MERIT Working Papers 2022-011, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    14. Silke Hamann & Annekatrin Niebuhr & Duncan Roth & Georg Sieglen, 2023. "How does the Covid‐19 pandemic affect regional labor markets and why do large cities suffer most?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(5), pages 1228-1250, November.
    15. Ebrahim Navid Sadjadi, 2025. "The recovery plans at the time of COVID-19 foster the journey toward smart city development and sustainability: a narrative review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 9743-9771, May.
    16. Louis‐Philippe Beland & Bulent Unel, 2019. "Politics and entrepreneurship in the US," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 33-57, February.
    17. Yu Zheng & Alan Collins & Shujie Yao, 2024. "Promoting sustainable and high‐quality economic development in China via regional innovation poles," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 671-699, June.
    18. Du, Juntao & Shen, Zhiyang & Song, Malin & Zhang, Linda, 2023. "Nexus between digital transformation and energy technology innovation: An empirical test of A-share listed enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    19. Castelnovo, Paolo & Florio, Massimo & Forte, Stefano & Rossi, Lucio & Sirtori, Emanuela, 2018. "The economic impact of technological procurement for large-scale research infrastructures: Evidence from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1853-1867.
    20. Chang-Tai Lee & Jin-Li Hu & Ming-Hsin Kung, 2022. "Economic Resilience in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Across-Economy Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, April.

    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:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:19:p:14289-:d:1249002. 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.