Internet Enables Efficient and Balanced Development of Regional Cultural and Creative Industry

Using entropy weighting method, global DEA-EBM model, panel vector autoregressive model and β convergence test model, this study evaluates the Internet development level and cultural and creative industry efficiency in China from 2016 to 2022, evaluates whether Internet development can drive the efficient and balanced development of regional cultural and creative industry. The results show that Internet development can not only effectively improve cultural and creative industry efficiency, but also accelerate the efficient and balanced development of regional cultural and creative industry. However, Internet development has a significantly stronger effect on improving cultural and creative industry efficiency in the eastern region and the convergence rate of efficiency gaps among provinces than the central and western regions. Accordingly, this study puts forward some suggestions from optimizing the input-output structure of cultural and creative industry, increasing the investment in internet infrastructure and strengthening the deep integration of the two.