Research on the Regional Differences and Evolution Characteristics of China’s Digital Economy Development Level

在新一轮科技革命和产业深刻变革的背景下，数字经济日益成为我国经济高质量发展的重要战略支撑力量。本文基于2013~2023年中国31个省(市、区)的面板数据，从数字化基础设施、数字产业化和产业数字化三个维度构建指标体系，采用熵值法对我国东、中、西和东北四大区域的数字经济发展水平进行测度，并运用Dagum基尼系数分解法进一步分析数字经济发展水平的差异演变特征。研究发现：1) 2013~2023年间，我国数字经济发展水平整体呈现稳步上升态势，尤其在2016~2019年间增速显著；2) 东部地区数字经济发展水平始终处于领先地位，形成明显的“东高西低”区域格局；3) 数字经济发展的总体差异主要来源于区域间差异，贡献率超过70%；4) 东部地区内部差异大于其他区域，存在显著的“强省虹吸效应”。基于此，本文提出加快中西部地区数字基础设施建设、提升区域协同发展能力、推动数据要素市场机制建设等政策建议，以实现我国数字经济的高质量协调发展。Against the background of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and profound industrial changes, the digital economy has increasingly become an important strategic support force for the high-quality development of China’s economy. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces (cities and districts) in China from 2013 to 2023, this paper constructs the index system from the three dimensions of digital infrastructure, digital industrialization and industrial digitization, adopts the entropy method to measure the development level of digital economy in the four major regions of China, namely, East, Central, West, and Northeast, and applies the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition to further analyze the evolution characteristics of differences in the development level of digital economy. The study finds: 1) From 2013 to 2023, the level of digital economy development in China shows a steady upward trend, with significant growth rates particularly between 2016 and 2019; 2) The level of digital economy development in the eastern region has always been in the lead, forming an obvious “east high and west low” regional pattern; 3) The overall difference in digital economy development mainly comes from inter-regional differences, with a contribution rate of more than 70%; 4) The internal differences in the eastern region are greater than in other regions, and there is a significant “siphoning effect of strong provinces”. Based on this, this paper proposes to accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure in the central and western regions, enhance the capacity of regional collaborative development, and promote the construction of the market mechanism for data elements and other policy recommendations, in order to realize the high-quality and coordinated development of China’s digital economy.