Efficiency Evaluation of China’s Provincial Digital Economy Based on a DEA Cross-Efficiency Model

Abstract

The Chinese government clearly put forward a strategy to speed up the development of the digital economy in “the 14th Five-Year” Plan, which will become the booster of China’s development. China has a vast territory and the state of development of the digital economy varies greatly across different regions. It is crucial to clarify the reasons for these differences and take measures to narrow them. Therefore, the evaluation and analysis of the current situation are conducive to the further development of the digital economy. Taking 30 provinces (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) of China as the research objects, this paper constructs an index system taking digital infrastructure, digital technology and digital talent as input variables and taking digital industrialization and industrial digitization as output variables. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) cross-efficiency model is constructed to calculate and compare the cross-efficiency of the digital economies in each province. The results show the following: (1) The development efficiency of China’s digital economy has generally been low, and there is a large “digital divide” between provinces. (2) The input of digital talents is crucial for the digital economy in order to achieve high output and high efficiency, and high output is often accompanied by high efficiency. Based on the above conclusions, this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote the development of China’s digital economy.