Government digital transformation and high-quality economic development: evidence from chinese listed enterprises

Unlike prior studies that examine government digital transformation (GDT) primarily from governmental or macroeconomic perspectives, this study investigates the effect of GDT on economic output from the perspective of enterprises. This paper treats the establishment of integrated government service platforms as an institutional shock representing GDT and constructs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to estimate the effect of GDT on high-quality economic development. Empirical results suggest that GDT significantly promotes high-quality economic development, and these results remain robust across a series of robustness tests, including PSM-DID estimation, exclusion of regional self-selection and contemporaneous policy shocks, alternative fixed-effects specifications, and variable substitutions. This study also identifies those conditions under which GDT promotes high-quality economic development by examining the key dimensions of government behavior. Results indicate that strong fiscal support constitutes a critical foundation for effective GDT, lower fiscal transparency amplifies the marginal impact of GDT on high-quality economic development, and stronger digital leadership capacity further strengthens these positive effects. Enterprise digitalization also exhibits a complementary relationship with GDT, with the latter exhibiting stronger inclusive effects. Aside from offering theoretical support to achieve a balance between “effective government” and “efficient markets” in developing economies with complex institutional environments and pronounced regional disparities, these results offer important policy implications for governments seeking to overcome governance bottlenecks and fully realize the dividends of digital transformation.