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Digital economy development strategies that take big data as a key production factor can enhance human capital. To investigate the effect of digital economy development on human capital, this study takes “China Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones” as a quasinatural experiment and analyzes panel data for 261 prefecture-level cities spanning 2009–2021 using difference-in-differences (DID), propensity score matching (PSM), and double machine learning (DML). The results show that digital economy development significantly increases regional human capital, a finding that remains robust after multiple sensitivity checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that digital economy development indirectly promotes human capital accumulation by enhancing regional innovation capacity. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that cities with stronger economic bases and higher urbanization levels exhibit more pronounced policy effects. These findings deepen our understanding of the policy effects of China Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones and can provide evidence-based recommendations for maximizing the human-capital effects of digital economy development.
Yu Ma (Sat,) studied this question.