Identifying the Spatiotemporal Differences and Driving Forces of Residents’ Consumption at the Provincial Level in the Context of the Digital Economy

The digital economy has become a new form of the economy. Based on data from the China Year Book from 2012 to 2020, this paper characterizes China’s spatial differences in regional consumption expenditure in the context of the digital economy. We utilize the GIS spatial analysis technique, ESDA, Geodetector, and other spatial econometric tools to reveal the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and driving mechanism of residents’ consumption development in the context of the digital economy for 31 provinces in China and propose differentiated policy suggestions for residents’ consumption development against the background of the digital economy in China, creating a reference for decision making on residents’ consumption in China. The findings show that, first, provincial residents’ consumption expenditures appear to decrease on a gradient from eastern to central and western China, showing extreme polarization and spatial aggregation. Second, the power of the seven driving factors of residents’ consumption varies widely across time; the driving factors representing the digital economy can reduce the regional differences in residents’ consumption. On the other hand, non-digital economic factors increase the spatial difference. Third, two digital economic factors play the most important roles in the interaction effect in most years.