IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0311689.html

The impact of the digital economy on food system resilience: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zheng Zhu
  • Zhen Wang
  • Song Yu
  • Zhaomei Tang
  • Bin Liu

Abstract

Despite the widespread influence of the burgeoning digital economy on agricultural productivity in recent years, China’s food system confronts numerous challenges. Notably, research exploring the digital economy’s impact on food system resilience remains scarce, and the pivotal role of industrial agglomeration in this context remains unclear. Therefore, this article is based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper empirically examines the direct effect, the mechanism of action, and the spatial spillover effect of the resilience of a digital economy-enabled food system using a double fixed-effects model, mediated-effects model, and spatial econometric model. The results show the following: (1) The resilience of China’s urban food system shows obvious spatial differences, but the overall trend in improvement requires attention. (2) The development of a digital economy has a facilitating effect on the level of resilience of the food system, and industrial agglomeration induces an intermediary effect. (3) The digital economy has a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the resilience of the food system; i.e., the digital economy can improve the resilience of the food system in the region and the neighboring regions. Accordingly, policy recommendations have been put forward to improve infrastructure construction and promote the development of digital villages; strengthen the construction of industrial agglomerations and promote the enhancement of the quality and efficiency of industries; and promote the development of regional linkages and build a solid foundation for food security.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng Zhu & Zhen Wang & Song Yu & Zhaomei Tang & Bin Liu, 2024. "The impact of the digital economy on food system resilience: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(10), pages 1-19, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0311689
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311689
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0311689
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0311689&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0311689?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2014. "US Food Aid and Civil Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1630-1666, June.
    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. Waheed Ahmad & Rukhsana Kalim, 2024. "Analyzing Digital Economy¡¯s Role in Global Green Growth Opportunities: An Asymmetric MMQR Approach," Journal of Economic Sciences, Federal Urdu University Islamabad, Department of Economics, vol. 3(2), pages 162-180, December.

    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. Lingzhang Kong & Jinye Li, 2022. "Digital Economy Development and Green Economic Efficiency: Evidence from Province-Level Empirical Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-26, December.
    2. Thiemo Fetzer & Samuel Marden, 2017. "Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(601), pages 757-783, May.
    3. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Langlotz, Sarah, 2019. "The effects of foreign aid on refugee flows," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 127-147.
    4. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Sevilla, Almudena, 2018. "Immigration enforcement and economic resources of children with likely unauthorized parents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 63-78.
    5. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do private household transfers to the elderly respond to public pension benefits? Evidence from rural China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    6. Askarov, Zohid & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2015. "Spatial aid spillovers during transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 79-95.
    7. Minhua Yang & Rui Yao & Linkun Ma & Ang Yang, 2024. "Towards a Low-Carbon Target: How the High-Speed Rail and Its Expansion Affects Industrial Concentration and Macroeconomic Conditions: Evidence from Chinese Urban Agglomerations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.
    8. Cong, Yingnan & Hou, Yufei & Ji, Yuan & Cai, Xiaojing, 2026. "Does innovation-driven policy optimize urban energy consumption? Evidence from China’s innovation-driven city pilot policies," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    9. Austin L. Wright, 2016. "Economic Shocks and Rebel," HiCN Working Papers 232, Households in Conflict Network.
    10. Huayi Huang & Zhibing Zhang, 2025. "Equalization of basic public services enabled by digitization: A study of mechanism and heterogeneity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, January.
    11. Fuming Deng & Lu Cai & Xiaolei Ma, 2024. "Does digital transformation restrict the carbon emission intensity of enterprises? Evidence from listed manufacturing enterprises in China," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(2), pages 364-384, May.
    12. Lichun Hou & Chengshi Tian & Ruibing Xiang & Cuicui Wang & Mei Gai, 2023. "Research on the Impact Mechanism and Spatial Spillover Effect of Digital Economy on Rural Revitalization: An Empirical Study Based on China’s Provinces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-21, July.
    13. 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.
    14. Huang, Yong & Elahi, Ehsan & You, Jiansheng & Sheng, Yuhua & Li, Jinwei & Meng, Anchan, 2024. "Land use policy implications of demographic shifts: Analyzing the impact of aging rural populations on agricultural carbon emissions in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Wang, Yafei & Shi, Ming & Zhao, Zihan & Liu, Junnan & Zhang, Shiqiu, 2025. "How does green finance improve the total factor energy efficiency? Capturing the mediating role of green management innovation and embodied technological progress," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    17. Andreas Freytag & Miriam Kautz & Moritz Wolf, 2024. "Chinese aid and democratic values in Latin America," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 198(3), pages 531-593, March.
    18. Liu, Bofan & Guo, Ruifei & Shi, Huaqin, 2025. "Digital government and corporate investment: Effects and mechanisms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    19. Juergen Bitzer & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis," Working Papers V-407-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    20. Heqi Zhang & Xiaonan Hou & Zhenzhen Rao, 2025. "Can fintech improve total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China’s listed companies," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(8), pages 1-20, August.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0311689. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.