数字经济发展能够抑制地方政府规模膨胀吗——基于政府治理能力视角的实证研究

Can digital economy development curb the expansion of local government size-An Empirical Study Based on the Perspective of Government Governance Capacity

基于政府治理能力视角,考察了2010年到2020年数字经济发展与我国地方政府规模之间的关系。研究发现:(1)我国数字经济发展与地方政府规模之间呈现出先抑制后膨胀的“U”型关联,政府治理能力在数字经济影响地方政府规模变动的过程中发挥了显著的中介和负向调节作用,政府治理能力的提升可与数字化协同大幅抑制地方政府规模膨胀;(2)我国数字经济影响地方政府规模变动存在三个明显的门限值,分区域来看,东部地区数字经济发展已经进入了扩大政府规模的上升区间,而中西部地区仍处于数字经济有效缩小地方政府规模的下降区间;(3)我国省际地方政府规模变动具有明显的“路径依赖”特征,想要持续推进高效精简的服务型政府建设,除有效提升数字治理能力之外,还需与分权改革、高水平开放及城镇化进程相适配。

The article examines the relationship between digital economy development and local government size in China from 2010 to 2020 and finds that:(1)the relationship between digital economy development and local government size in China shows a first suppressed and then inflated(1)there is a"U"-shaped correlation between the development of China's digital economy and the size of local governments,and government governance capacity plays a significant mediating and negative regulating role in the process of digital economy influencing the change of local government size,and the improvement of government governance capacity can significantly inhibit the expansion of local government size in synergy with digitalization;(2)there are three obvious thresholds for China's digital economy influencing the change of local government size(2)There are three obvious thresholds for the change in the size of local governments affected by the digital economy in China;(3)From a sub-regional perspective,the development of the digital economy in the eastern region has entered the rising range of expanding the size of government,while the central and western regions are still in the falling range of the digital economy effectively reducing the size of local governments;(4)The change in the size of local governments between provinces in China has obvious"path-dependent"characteristics,and in order to continue to promote efficient and streamlined service-oriented(4)The change in the size of local governments at the inter-provincial level in China is characterized by obvious"path dependence".