At this crucial juncture in China’s economic transition from a phase of high-speed growth to one of high-quality development, expanding domestic demand and strengthening the fundamental role of consumption in economic development have become core strategic tasks. Information consumption, as a new form of consumption in the digital economy era, has become a key force in tapping the potential of the domestic consumer market and promoting economic transformation and upgrading, thanks to its high added value, strong penetration, and innovativeness. However, despite some research on information consumption both domestically and internationally, empirical analysis on its ability to stimulate the potential of the consumer market remains insufficient. A thorough identification of the impact, pathways, and spatial effects of information consumption pilot policies on the potential of the domestic consumer market can not only further enrich the theoretical framework of the digital economy and the consumer economy but also provide a scientific basis for improving information infrastructure construction, promoting innovation in digital consumption models, and optimizing consumption-promoting policies. Therefore, this paper conducts research on the theme of “An Empirical Study on How Information Consumption Stimulates the Potential of the Domestic Consumer Market,” which has a clear focus on practical problems and policy value.
This paper utilizes panel data covering 273 prefecture-level cities across China from 2010 to 2021, treating the national information consumption pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment. A double machine learning approach is employed to systematically evaluate the policy's impact on the potential of the domestic consumer market, its underlying mechanisms, and its spatial spillover effects.Our results show that: First, the information consumption pilot policy significantly enhances the potential of urban consumer markets, and this conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests and endogeneity adjustments. Second, the policy effects exhibit significant regional differences, being more pronounced in eastern regions, cities with well-developed digital infrastructure, and cities with higher levels of market integration. Third, promoting urban green technology innovation and facilitating the development of digital inclusive finance in cities are important influencing mechanisms. Fourth, the study finds that pilot cities do indeed generate spatial spillover effects, but these effects have a clear threshold characteristic: significant positive spillover effects only occur when at least two pilot cities are established around non-pilot cities.
Compared with previous studies, the main contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) This paper integrates the information consumption pilot policy with the potential of the domestic consumer market into a unified analytical framework, and examines in depth the impact of information consumption on the potential of the domestic consumer market. This is very much in line with China’s current strategic requirements of “boosting consumption” and “expanding domestic demand”, and enriches the relevant policy research. (2) From the perspective of green technology innovation and digital inclusive finance development, this paper deeply analyzes the internal transmission mechanism of the information consumption pilot policy to stimulate the potential of the domestic consumer market, further clarifies the logical chain of the policy's role, and provides a scientific path reference for giving full play to the empowering effect of information consumption and promoting the release of consumption potential. (3) Based on the differences in urban geographical location, digital infrastructure construction level and market integration, this paper comprehensively analyzes the heterogeneity of policy effects, and provides a strong basis for different regions to implement differentiated policies. (4) This paper further examines the spatial spillover effect of the information consumption pilot policy from the perspective of spatial economics, and reveals its spatial threshold characteristics, providing empirical evidence for promoting the optimization of the layout of pilot cities and enhancing the policy’s radiation and driving capacity.
The conclusions of this study provide a theoretical basis and policy implications for promoting the expansion and quality improvement of information consumption, realizing the transformation and upgrading of the consumption structure, and fully stimulating the consumption potential of the domestic market.
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