Spatial distribution structure of new infrastructure and impacts of digital economy

Abstract

With the development of 5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology (5G), industrial internet, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing, smart construction, and other new technologies or new industries, a new infrastructure has emerged. The scale and the spatial distribution structure of new infrastructure across various regions of China from 2020 to 2022 were measured based on the official annual engineering construction project plans, and the impacts of the digital economy were analyzed by using the spatial Durbin model. The results indicate that the new infrastructure projects are mainly distributed in Eastern, Central, and Southern China. Meanwhile, the Moran’s I index demonstrates a statistically significant positive spatial autocorrelation, indicating that there is a significant trend of spatial agglomeration among these new infrastructure projects. The digital economy is significantly affecting the spatial distribution of the new infrastructure. The impact of the digital economy on the new infrastructure can cross regions and has significant spatial spillover effects, which reflects the virtual characteristic of the new infrastructure and digital economy. Therefore, various regions should coordinate the digital economic development needs of local and surrounding regions to rationally plan new infrastructure projects, ensuring the supporting capacity of infrastructure while preventing over-investment.

Keywords

new infrastructure / digital economy / spatial agglomeration / spatial spillover effect

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(72134002)

National Natural Science Foundation of China(72072031)