数“治”出“新”：数字治理促进城市创新的机理与证据

Innovation by Digital Governance : The Mechanism and Evidence for Digital Governance Promoting Urban Innovation

摘要:

提升政府数字治理水平是推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要抓手。基于交易费用理论、实物期权理论和信号理论,厘清政府数字治理影响城市创新的理论逻辑和作用机制,以“信息惠民国家试点”政策为外生冲击,利用双重差分模型进行实证检验。研究发现,政府数字治理显著促进了城市创新,且在经过一系列稳健性检验后仍成立。调节机制检验结果表明,政府数字治理产生的创新增进效应在信息集成度和信息透明度高的地区更加明显,即数字治理在信息聚合度和信息公开度更高的地区更能够促进城市创新。中介机制检验结果发现,政府数字治理促进了创新重视程度的增进和研发支持力度的加大,进而提升了城市创新水平。进一步地,在“有效市场、有为政府、有力法治”的架构下开展异质性分析,结果显示在高市场化程度地区、高知识产权保护力度地区、高人力资本水平地区及策略性创新情形下,政府数字治理产生的创新增进效应更为强劲。研究结论丰盈了数字治理影响城市创新的理论框架,为理解数字治理何以促进城市创新提供了新的理论机制、经验证据和实践逻辑。

Abstract:

Enhancing digital governance capabilities constitutes a pivotal approach to advancing the modernization of China’s governance system and capacity. Based on transaction cost theory , real options theory and signaling theory , the theoretical logic and mechanisms through which government digital governance influences urban innovation were clarified. Employing the“national information benefiting people pilot” policy as an exogenous shock , a difference-in-differences model was utilized for empirical testing. The findings reveal that digital governance significantly promotes urban innovation , a result that holds after a series of robustness tests. Moderation mechanism analysis demonstrates that the innovation enhancing effects of digital governance are more pronounced in regions with higher information integration capacity and information transparency , indicating that digital governance facilitates information aggregation and disclosure , thereby fostering urban innovation. Mediating mechanism tests reveal that the government's digital governance have enhanced the emphasis on innovation and increased support for research and development , thereby elevating the city's innovation level. Heterogeneity analysis conduct within the“effective market , proactive government , and robust rule-of-law” framework reveals stronger innovation effects in regions with : higher marketization levels , stricter intellectual property protection , greater human capital endowment , and strategic innovation contexts. These findings enrich the theoretical framework of digital governance's impact on urban innovation , providing novel mechanistic insights , empirical evidence , and practical rationale for understanding how digital governance drives urban innovation.