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Research on the Impact of Digital Consumption on the Upgrading of Industrial Structure

Author(s)

Zongbin Zhang*

Affiliation(s)

School of Economics, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China *Corresponding Author

Abstract

Digital consumption has become a vital engine of economic growth in the digital economy era and a key support for boosting the domestic circulation. It is practically significant for unlocking new consumption potential, advancing the digital-real economic integration of enterprises, and driving industrial structure upgrading. Using provincial-level data from 2015 to 2024, this paper constructs an indicator system of digital consumption, empirically tests the direct effect of digital consumption on industrial structure upgrading through a two-way FE model, and further verifies its indirect role in advancing industrial structural upgrading via the channel of technological innovation by adopting the mediating effect approach. The results confirm that digital consumption not only directly boosts industrial structural upgrading, but also drives the overall industrial optimization and the secondary industry's internal structural upgrading through technological innovation spillovers. Accordingly, we should unlock digital consumption potential, deepen its connotation, and enhance technological innovation capacity to fully leverage its role in releasing consumption demand, expanding domestic demand, and propelling economic growth and industrial upgrading.

Keywords

Digital Consumption; Industrial Structure Upgrading; Manufacturing Upgrading; Service Industry Upgrading

References

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