Does digital government construction promote regional innovation? Evidence from Chinese cities

Against the backdrop of the global technological revolution and industrial transformation, regional innovation has become a core engine for high-quality development. Using panel data of 283 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2016 to 2022, this paper employs a two-way fixed-effects model, mediating effect model, moderating effect model and spatial econometric model to empirically examine the impact, mechanism and spatial spillover effect of digital government construction on regional innovation. The results show that: (1) Digital government construction significantly boosts regional innovation, and this conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests and endogeneity treatments; (2) Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the innovation-driven effect of digital government is more prominent in eastern regions, non-old industrial base cities, population inflow cities and non-resource-based cities; (3) Digital government promotes regional innovation mainly through the mediating channels of economic agglomeration and high-skilled labor agglomeration; (4) Digital inclusive finance and human capital positively moderate the relationship between digital government construction and regional innovation; (5) Regional innovation presents significant spatial dependence, and digital government construction produces positive spatial spillover effects on neighboring regions. These findings enrich the research on the economic effects of digital government and provide empirical support and policy implications for advancing digital government transformation and coordinated regional innovation development.