Dynamics of Distribution, Industry Associations and Convergence Analysis in China’s Digital Economy Development

Abstract

This paper measures the scale of digital industrialization and industrial digitalisation in 30 provinces in China from 2002 to 2017 based on the input-output table, and analyses the evolution dynamics, industrial association characteristics and their convergence using Kernel density estimation, Dagum Gini coefficient, and economic convergence model. The results of the study show that there is a regional imbalance in the development of China’s digital economy with the coast being lower than the inland; the difference in the distribution of dynamics within the four major economic regions is gradually expanding, with the most obvious in the central and western regions; the characteristics of the digital industrialization correlation show the evolution path of “energy industry → service industry → manufacturing industry → agriculture”; there is a convergence in all aspects of the digital economy in the country, and the economic convergence model is applied to each economic region. There is σ — convergence in all aspects of the digital economy in the country as a whole, and the results of σ — convergence in each economic region are somewhat different; β — absolute convergence exists in the country as a whole and in each economic region, and only the central and northeastern parts of the country have insignificant results in conditional β convergence. The overall rate of convergence is characterized by “East > West > Central > Northeast”.