Digital Economy and Employment Quality in China: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Educational Resource Allocation
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
บทคัดย่อ
Using provincial panel data from 30 Chinese provinces over the period 2011–2022, this paper employs fixed-effects models to examine the impact of digital economy development on employment quality. The results reveal that digital economy development significantly improves employment quality, with this effect remaining robust after addressing potential endogeneity and using different model specifications. Additionally, the study shows that investment in educational resources partially mediates the relationship between the digital economy and employment quality. Notably, the structure of educational resources, as measured by the average size of higher education institutions, exhibits a significant negative moderating effect, challenging conventional expectations. The findings further highlight that the positive effects of the digital economy on employment quality are stronger in the eastern and central regions than in the western and northeastern regions. However, it should be noted that the positive impact is mainly concentrated in the “work environment” subdimension, with no significant effects observed on work income and labor protection. Based on these findings, the study suggests that improving employment quality in the digital economy requires not only continued digital development but also increased investment in education and better alignment of higher education resource allocation with regional development needs.
Article Details
อนุญาตภายใต้เงื่อนไข Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
เอกสารอ้างอิง
Bai, X., Li, L. and Song, P. (2023). Balancing efficiency and fairness: The research on the impact of China’s digital economy development on economic growth and income inequality. Journal of Xi’an Jiaotong University (Social Sciences), 43, 38-50.
Behrendt, C., Nguyen, Q. A. and Rani, U. (2019). Social protection systems and the future of work: Ensuring social security for digital platform workers. International Social Security Review, 72(3), 17-41.
Cai, Y., Liu, S. and Zhang, X. (2024). The digital economy and job quality: Facilitator or inhibitor? -- Evidence from micro-individuals. Heliyon, 10(4), e26536.
Chen, J. and Xiong, B. (2025). Study on the impact of the digital economy on employment quality and the mechanism of action based on China’s interprovincial panel data from 2013 to 2022. Sustainability, 17(1), 127.
Ge, H. and Wu, F. (2022). Digital economy enables high-quality economic development: Theoretical mechanisms and empirical evidence. Frontiers of Economics in China, 17(4), 643.
Guan, H., Guo, B. and Zhang, J. (2022). Study on the impact of the digital economy on the upgrading of industrial structures—Empirical analysis based on cities in China. Sustainability, 14(18), 11378.
Hao, Z., Zhu, X. and Zhang, X. (2023). The influence of industrial digitalization on the quality structure of the Labor Force: A panel threshold model based on industrial structure upgrading. Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics, 27(6), 1025-1036.
Huang, C. (2025). Analysis of the mechanisms and characteristics of high-quality employment promotion through digital economy development. International Journal of Business and Management, 1(3), 22-22.
Huang, Q., Yu, Y. and Zhang, S. (2019). Internet development and productivity growth in manufacturing industry: Internal mechanism and China experiences. China Industrial Economics, (08), 5-23.
Jahn, E. J., Riphahn, R. T. and Schnabel, C. (2012). Feature: Flexible forms of employment: Boon and bane. The Economic Journal, 122(562), F115-F124.
Knight, J., Deng, Q. and Li, S. (2017). China’s expansion of higher education: The labour market consequences of a supply shock. China Economic Review, 43, 127-141.
Lai, Y. (2022). Research on the impact of the digital economy on high-quality employment. Doctoral dissertation, Development Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu.)
Lee, N. and Clarke, S. (2019). Do low-skilled workers gain from high-tech employment growth? High-technology multipliers, employment and wages in Britain. Research Policy, 48(9), 103803.
Li, L. (2022). Impact of digital economy on employment and coping Strategies. Econ. Probl, 4, 37-42.
Liu, G., Liu, R., Tian, M., Wang, J. and Ma, H. (2025). Heterogeneous impact of digital economy on employment quality of female migrant workers in an emerging economy: Evidence from China. World Development, 195, 107127.
Liu, T., Xue, D., Fang, Y. and Zhang, K. (2023). The impact of differentiated development of the digital economy on employment quality An empirical analysis based on provincial data from China. Sustainability, 15(19), 14176.
Ma, L. and Cao, P. (2025). Digital financial literacy and employment quality of urban residents in China. Finance Research Letters, 107924.
Manning, A. (2004). We can work it out: the impact of technological change on the demand for low-skill workers. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 51(5), 581-608.
Min, W. and Zhang, L. (2025). Educational input, resource allocation and returns to human capital. Springer Books, 5, 75-93
Nunn, N. and Qian, N. (2014). US food aid and civil conflict. American Economic Review, 104(6), 1630-1666.
Omoeva, C., Cunha, N. M. and Moussa, W. (2021). Measuring equity of education resource allocation: An output-based approach. International Journal of Educational Development, 87, 102492.
Qi, Y., Liu, C. and Ding, S. (2020). Digital economy development, employment structure optimization, and employment quality upgrading. Economic Perspectives, 11(1), 17-35.
Rani, U. and Furrer, M. (2021). Digital labour platforms and new forms of flexible work in developing countries: Algorithmic management of work and workers. Competition & change, 25(2), 212-236.
Songwathana, K. (2025). E-Development and digital infrastructure: Implications for wage employment. In The 16th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning (IC4e) (pp. 648-652). Beijing: IEEE.
Tao, Z., Zhi, Z. and Shangkun, L. (2020). Digital economy, entrepreneurship, and high quality economic development: Empirical evidence from urban China. Frontiers of Economics in China, 17(3), 393.
Uddin, M., Ali, A. and Siddik, A. B. (2025). Employment in the digital economy: Role of artificial intelligence and technological innovation. Technology in Society, 85, 103171.
Wang, J., Weng, X. and Zhang, C. (2025). The effect of digital infrastructure on human capital development: Evidence from employment quality in China. International Review of Financial Analysis, 1(1), 104698.
Wang, T., Li, S. and Gao, D. (2024). What factors have an impact on the employment quality of platform-based flexible workers? An evidence from China. Heliyon, 10(2), e24654.
Wang, Y. and Wang, Y. (2012). Education in a changing world: Flexibility, skills, and employability (Vol. 69104). Washington: World Bank.
Wicht, A., Müller, N., Haasler, S. and Nonnenmacher, A. (2019). The interplay between education, skills, and job quality. Social Inclusion, 7(3), 254-269.
Xiaole, Q., Qiang, D. and Yang, H. (2023). Research on Occupational Mobility and Its Income Effects in the Context of Digital Economy. Population Science of China, 37(1), 86-100.
Yang, G., Yao, S. and Dong, X. (2023). Digital economy and wage gap between high-and low- skilled workers. Digital Economy and Sustainable Development, 1(1), 7.
Yun, R., Huang, B. and Zhu, Y. (2025). How to Measure the Educational Human Capital of A Country: A Systematic Review on Frontier Measurement Methods and International Data Conversion Technology. Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), 43(10), 10.
Zhou, Y., Lyu, J. and Li, L. (2025). Can digital transformation enhance labor productivity in enterprises: An analysis from the perspective of business process reengineering. Plos one, 20(6), e0325484.
