Digital Technology Innovation and High-Quality Economic Development in China’s Resource-Based Cities: A Panel Data Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-783-5_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digital Technology Innovation; Resource-based cities; high-quality economic development; investment in S&T

Abstract

Urban economy has gained rapid traction following the rise of digital technology innovation with its “green technology attribute”. However, leveraging such innovation has remained a critical challenge for resource-based cities that heavily rely on a single industrial structure and consume significant resources for energy. The current study empirically examined the relationship between digital technology innovation and the high-quality economic development using the panel data of 111 resource-based cities in China from 2012 to 2021. Heterogeneity analysis was also performed to examine how the hypothesized impact affect different city types. Empirical analyses confirmed that the high-quality economic development of resource-based cities was significantly and positively impacted by digital technology innovation. Results also showed significant heterogeneity of impact at different development stages from declining and growing cities to regenerating and mature cities, and the substantial positive moderating role of investment in science and technology (S&T). The robustness and absence of potential endogeneity issues of the derived results were validated accordingly. This study proposed several evidence-based policy recommendations for high-quality economic development: (1) leverage digital technology innovation to promote differentiated green transformation; (2) optimize policy support mechanisms with increased investment in science and technology; (3) implement differentiated digital technology development strategies according to local conditions.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Peng Li
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
TI  - Digital Technology Innovation and High-Quality Economic Development in China’s Resource-Based Cities: A Panel Data Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 2nd International Conference on Resilient City and Safety Engineering (ICRCSE 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 64
EP  - 80
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-783-5_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-783-5_9
ID  - Li2026
ER  -