
The efficiency of the digital economy varies by location, with the eastern region tending to perform the best, and the central region tending to perform the worst. This confirmed that external environmental factors uniquely influence the efficiency of the digital economy. The findings demonstrated that after excluding external environmental factors, the scale efficiency value, integrated technical efficiency value, and pure technical efficiency value all significantly increased. Therefore, to quantify and analyze the efficiency of China’s digital economy from 2013 to 2020 from both a static and dynamic perspective, this research utilized a three-stage DEA model and the Malmquist index. Recently, less research has been conducted on the efficiency of the digital economy, with the majority of studies instead concentrating on the industrial size of the digital economy.


The digital economy, a new economic form, has become an essential economic development engine in various countries.
