Bridging the Regional Innovation Gap: The Driving Role of Digital Governance in China

Abstract

Digital governance (DG), functioning as a critical driver in regional innovation ecosystems, effectively promotes spatial equity and innovation equilibrium. Based on a panel of Chinese cities from 2010 to 2023, we treat the Internet + Government Services policy as a quasi-natural experiment of DG and apply a difference-in-differences model to analyze the impact of the DG on the regional innovation gaps (RIG). Results indicate that DG significantly narrows RIG, particularly in cities with advanced digital infrastructure, non-shrinking population, large-scale cities and abundant human capital. The mechanism analysis demonstrates that DG narrows RIG by eliminating disparities in the innovation environment and facilitating the cross-regional flow of innovation factors. This convergence effect predominantly originates from reducing RIG between developed and less-developed regions. Additionally, DG exerts a more pronounced promotional effect on innovation development in central municipal districts, while its effect on county-level areas remains relatively limited, thereby exacerbating the RIG within cities. These findings offer substantial implications for formulating targeted DG strategies to foster spatially balanced regional innovation development.