July 7, 2025

Spatial Effects of Digital Infrastructure Development on Common Prosperity: Empirical Evidence from Prefecture-Level Panel Data

Key Points

Digital infrastructure development significantly enhances local common prosperity levels, yet spatial spillover effects to neighboring areas are weak.
Results from panel data covering 280 Chinese cities between 2008 and 2021 reveal a nuanced impact on regional equity.
Using a Spatial Durbin Model, the analysis indicates that financial agglomeration contributes indirectly to common prosperity enhancement.
These findings call for policies to optimize resource allocation and foster regional coordination to reduce development imbalances.

Abstract

As global digitization accelerates, a nation's digital infrastructure advancement has emerged as a crucial measure of its overall competitiveness, substantially contributing to premium socioeconomic growth and shared prosperity. This research analyzes the effect of digital infrastructure growth on shared prosperity, utilizing panel data from 280 Chinese cities (2008–2021) and a Spatial Durbin Model framework. The results show that digital infrastructure development significantly enhances local common prosperity levels, while its spatial spillover effects on neighboring regions are weak and negative, potentially exacerbating regional development imbalances. Further analysis reveals that digital infrastructure indirectly promotes common prosperity by fostering financial agglomeration and driving industrial structure upgrading. Based on these findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations to strengthen digital infrastructure development, optimize financial resource allocation, promote industrial structure upgrading, and enhance regional coordination to reduce regional disparities and achieve the goal of common prosperity.

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