Whether the digital economy will successfully encourage the integration of urban and rural development: A case study in China

The digital economy has become an important driver for stimulating economic growth.The digital economy has now widely penetrated the fields of economy and society,providing new opportunities for the develop‐ment of urban-rural integration.Based on panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020,this study constructed an index system for the integration of the digital economy and the development of urban-rural areas and conducted a systematic measurement analysis.Additionally,we used a two-step system of GMM estimation to analyze the impact of the digital economy on the development of urban-rural integra‐tion.The findings demonstrate the significant imbalance paradox of China’s digital economy development,which is shown in a gradient where the eastern region is higher than the center and the central region is higher than the west.Urban-rural integration levels in China fluctuate and display geographical variance,typically displaying high levels in the east and low levels in the west.Urban-rural integration is significantly encouraged by the digital economy,yet it varies in variability between different areas and dimensions.Addi‐tionally,rural human capital moderates the favorable effects of the digital economy on urban-rural integra‐tion.As a result,in order to achieve the integrated development of urban and rural areas,it is imperative to fully exploit the active role of the digital economy,better support the development of rural revitalization,bridge the“digital divide”between urban and rural development,and build a strong foundation for the for‐mation of a digital urban-rural integrated development pattern with urban and rural areas and common con‐struction and sharing.

Governance Quality,Public Expenditure Efficiency,and Economic Growth

In this paper,we first examine the impact of governance quality on public expenditure efficiency.Then,we try to determine the effect of these expenditures on economic growth.Our starting point is the idea that public expenditure efficiency of a government program is significantly affected by the country’s governance quality.In other words,changes in government expenditure and the returns they generate on a government program depend on governance quality.Our sample consists of 36 countries observed over the 1996 to 2020 period.This period is known by a significant transition of political regimes.Our research model links government expenditure with the returns generated in a country in a given sector.In this model,we introduce the governance variable to examine the impact of government expenditure on returns on a government program in terms of schooling rates and life expectancy.The results indicate that governance quality affects expenditure structure and that efficiency of this expenditure positively correlates with a better governance quality as measured by corruption control and government efficiency.We also found that efficient expenditure has a positive impact on economic growth.

Efficient Estimation and Variable Selection in Dynamic Panel Data Partially Linear Varying Coefficient Models with Incidental Parameter

This paper is concerned with the statistical inference of partially linear varying coefficient dynamic panel data model with incidental parameter, including efficient estimation of the parametric and nonparametric components and consistent determination of the lagged order. For the parametric component, we propose an efficient semiparametric generalized method-of-moments（GMM） estimator and establish its asymptotic normality. For the nonparametric component, B-spline series approximation is employed to estimate the unknown coefficient functions, which are shown to achieve the optimal nonparametric convergence rate. A consistent estimator of the variance of error component is also constructed. In addition, by using the smooth-threshold GMM estimating equations, we propose a variable selection method to identify the significant order of lagged terms automatically and remove the irrelevant regressors by setting their coefficient to zeros. As a result, it can consistently determine the true lagged order and specify the significant exogenous variables. Further studies show that the resulting estimator has the same asymptotic properties as if the true lagged order and significant regressors were known prior, i.e., achieving the oracle property. Numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate the finite sample performance of our procedures. An example of application is also illustrated.