This paper examines how fiscal and tax incentives, enabled by the digital economy, empower the nighttime economy as a new driving force for urban development, providing empirical evidence for understanding consumption upgrading and industrial integration under policy impetus. Using panel data for Chinese prefecture-level and above cities from 2011 to 2023, this paper empirically tests the impact of fiscal and tax incentive policies on the development of the nighttime economy. The results show that fiscal and tax incentive policies have a positive effect on the development of the nighttime economy; the promoting effect of fiscal and tax incentive policies on the nighttime economy differs significantly across cities with different endowments of tourism resources and levels of financial development; moderation analysis indicates that the digital economy positively strengthens the promoting effect of fiscal and tax incentives on the nighttime economy, and this strengthening effect exhibits heterogeneity across regions with different levels of economic development. This study provides policy implications for stimulating urban consumption vitality and promoting high-quality development of the nighttime economy through the synergy of industrial policies and digital technologies.
Sun et al. (Sun,) studied this question.