Spatial imbalance in the digital era: how the digital economy affects urban sprawl in China

ABSTRACT

Economic and social activities in the digital age have changed business forms and spatial relations, and identifying evolution of the urban form in the digital age is the key to sustainable urban governance. Based on data from prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2021, this study explores the impact of the digital economy on urban sprawl and the path to its realization, thus providing policy implications for urban governance in the digital economy era. The empirical results show that the digital economy significantly promotes urban sprawl and that the urban sprawl effect caused by the digital economy has regional and scale heterogeneity. Western and medium-sized cities show greater sprawl trends under the influence of the digital economy. Digital economy development can significantly affect residents’ lifestyles and lead to urban sprawl, such as encouraging green, digital, and suburban lifestyles. In addition, the digital economy significantly affects the demand for urban land space, such as the industrial division of labour patterns, urbanization processes, and industrial virtual agglomeration, which are indirect factors leading to urban sprawl.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban sprawl
• digital economy
• urbanization
• lifestyle
• demand for urban space

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• R58
• R14
• O18

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data is available from the authors upon request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2024.2374459

Additional information

Funding

Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province of China [20232BAA10040].