Converting knowledge into Productivity: The role of intellectual property empowerment and digital economy in enhancing regional new quality productivity forces - Evidence from China

Abstract

In the context of China's ongoing digital transformation and the strengthening of intellectual property protection systems, cultivating new quality productive forces has become a key strategy for promoting high-quality economic development. This study investigates the synergistic effects of intellectual property empowerment and the digital economy on regional new quality productivity forces, drawing upon panel data from 31 Chinese provinces between 2012 and 2022. Utilizing an entropy weighting method, a comprehensive index system is constructed to evaluate new quality productivity forces, focusing on technological innovation, green transformation, and digital productivity. Utilizing a two-way fixed effects model, which controls for time-invariant characteristics and period-specific effects, we empirically examine the impacts of intellectual property empowerment and the digital economy on new quality productivity forces. Control variables include human capital, openness, industrialization level, urbanization rate, and economic development level. Robustness tests and instrumental variable approaches are applied to address potential endogeneity issues. Moreover, intellectual property protection and technological innovation serve as important mediating pathways in this relationship. The results also highlight regional heterogeneity, with industrial and service-oriented regions experiencing the most pronounced positive impacts, while resource-dependent areas demonstrate limited effects. These findings provide new theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence for strengthening intellectual property systems, advancing digital infrastructure, and promoting integrated regional innovation strategies. The study offers policy recommendations to support the coordinated development of intellectual property and the digital economy as dual engines for enhancing China's new quality productive forces.