Digital economy, scientific and technological innovation, and high-quality economic development: A mediating effect model based on the spatial perspective

Although the effect of the digital economy in promoting high-quality economic development is increasing day by day, research analysing this mechanism from the spatial perspective is very scarce. This study measures the level of the digital economy and high-quality economic development based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2020. On this basis, the direct, spillover, and mediating effects of the digital economy and scientific and technological innovation on high-quality economic development are further analysed through the spatial Durbin model and mediating effect model. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) the digital economy, scientific and technological innovation, and high-quality economic development all show significant spatial correlation; (2) the digital economy can directly drive high-quality economic development, the spillover effect of which is obvious; and (3) the mechanism analysis based on the spatial perspective shows that the mediating effect of scientific and technological innovation is significant. The conclusions still hold after robustness tests based on the use of lagged variables, replacement of the weight matrices, and changing of the measurement methods. This study provides theoretical support and empirical evidence for promoting the digital economy and high-quality economic development.