Does the Development of the Digital Economy Promote Common Prosperity?—Analysis Based on 284 Cities in China

Abstract

Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism and an important feature of Chinese-style modernization. Data from 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2020 were collected to construct an evaluation system of the digital economy and common prosperity and establish relevant econometric models to explore their impact, spatial spillover, and mechanism. It is found that: (1) the digital economy has an obvious role in promoting common prosperity, this promotion role is dynamic and nonlinear, and the digital economy’s promotion is more obvious in low-level digital economy regions; (2) the digital economy has obvious externalities, and there is a spatial spillover effect in the process of promoting common prosperity; (3) resource allocation efficiency plays a mediating role in the process of promoting common prosperity development in the digital economy. Finally, countermeasures and suggestions are proposed in four aspects: strengthening the development of the digital economy, increasing investment in digital infrastructure, enhancing the digital governance capacity of the government, and building a digital economy demonstration zone. The research results deepen the understanding of the digital economy and common prosperity and provide some insights for the ultimate realization of common prosperity.