Does the digital economy foster new urbanization? Evidence from marketization levels and heterogeneous innovation

People-centered new urbanization is an important support for the Chinese path to modernization. While digital technology is being fully integrated into all fields and processes of human economic and social construction, it brings a wide and profound impact on production and life. To further examine the potential impact of the new economic form represented by the digital economy on new urbanization, this paper utilizes the panel data of 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) in China from 2011 to 2020. By employing a two-way fixed effects model and a spatial econometric model, it empirically tests the influence of the digital economy on new urbanization. It is found that: (1) The digital economy has a significant facilitating effect on the construction of new urbanization. After a series of robustness tests and endogeneity tests, this effect still holds and shows significant regional heterogeneity. (2) The mechanism test shows that the digital economy can promote the construction of new urbanization by deepening market reform and stimulating technological innovation, and in the mechanism of technological innovation, the effect of substantive innovation is more obvious. (3) With the improvement of marketisation and technological innovation, the promotional effect of the digital economy on new urbanization becomes more and more obvious. Compared with substantive innovation, progressive innovation requires more technological accumulation before the impact of the digital economy on new urbanization can undergo a leap change. (4) Further research has found that there is a spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on new urbanization, which means that the digital economy not only promotes the construction of new urbanization in the local area, but also promotes the development of new urbanization in neighboring areas. The research results of this article enrich the research on the influencing factors of new urbanization construction from the perspective of the digital economy, and provide policy recommendations for the promotion of new urbanization construction by the digital economy.