A Study on the Impact of the Digital Economy on the Industrial Collaborative Agglomeration of Manufacturing and Productive Service Industries

The digital economy has profoundly reshaped industrial organizational structures and the spatial distribution of cooperative agglomerations in the manufacturing and productive service sectors. To support the coordinated and sustainable development of China’s industries, it is essential to clarify how the digital economy influences industrial cooperative agglomeration. This study first constructs a comprehensive index system capturing the quality, quantity, and synergy of industrial cooperative agglomeration, enabling an evaluation of collaborative agglomeration levels across 30 Chinese provinces. Second, the relationship between the digital economy and industrial collaborative agglomeration is examined using both static and dynamic spatial panel models. Finally, the paper investigates regional disparities in this relationship across eastern, central, and western China. The results reveal the following findings: (1) The digital economy has a significant inhibitory effect on industrial collaborative agglomeration overall. (2) Dynamic spatial lag model results show an inverted U-shaped relationship, where the digital economy initially promotes but later inhibits industrial agglomeration, with notable temporal lags and spatial spillover effects. (3) In eastern China, digital economy growth suppresses local agglomeration while promoting it in neighboring regions; in the central region, it enhances local agglomeration but dampens it in adjacent areas; and in the western region, the relationship is nonlinear and U-shaped.