Abstract
The digital economy (DIGI) as a new technology is crucial for promoting consumption upgrading (CU) and unleashing the potential of domestic demand. This study aims to reveal how DIGI affects CU. Based on the data from 30 provinces (cities) in China from 2011 to 2021, we adopt the fixed effect model, threshold effect model and spatial effect model to investigate the impact of DIGI on CU from the perspectives of consumption scale (CQ) and consumption structure (CS). The results show that: DIGI has a positive impact on CQ and CS in China. Regarding sample heterogeneity, there are consumption type and consumer group differences in the impact of DIGI on CU. Additionally, industrial structure and market integration pass the mechanism test for structural effects rather than scale effects. The result of DIGI on CS shows a nonlinear relationship due to market integration. There is also a positive spatial spillover effect of DIGI. The government should promote the development of DIGI, while accelerating industrial restructuring and advancing market integration, thus facilitating CU.
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Notes
‘Statistical Bulletin on National Economic and Social Development’ (2022).
The VIF values are all less than 10 and converge to 5, indicating no multicollinearity problem between the variables. The P-value of the Likelihood ratio test (LR) is 1, indicating no heteroskedasticity problem in our model. The P-values of the Wooldridge test are all greater than 0.1, 0.7277 and 0.4038, respectively, indicating no autocorrelation problem in our model.
Both Kleibergen-Paap rk LM statistic and Kleibergen-Paap Wald rk F statistic passed at least 10% significance test, indicating that the instrumental variable selection is reasonable and valid.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Project of China (grant number 72073122), National Social Science Foundation of China (22FJLB007), Hunan Social Science Foundation Project (22YBA025).
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DG contributed to Validation, Software, Resources, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. LL contributed to Project administration, Formal analysis. LQ contributed to Resources, Investigation. FQ contributed to Supervision, Methodology, Data curation.
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Guo, D., Li, L., Qiao, L. et al. Digital economy and consumption upgrading: scale effect or structure effect?. Econ Change Restruct 56, 4713–4744 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-023-09571-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-023-09571-z