A Study on the Impact of the Level of Digital Economic Development on China’ s Food Security

Based on panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2023, this research employs the entropy method to measure the level of digital economy development and constructs benchmark regression and mediation models to empirically examine the relationships among the level of digital economy development, agricultural technological innovation, land transfer level and food security. The benchmark regression results indicate that the development of the digital economy has a significantly positive impact on China’ s food security, a conclusion that remains valid after robustness checks and endogeneity treatments. Mechanism analysis shows that agricultural technological innovation and land transfer level in agriculture play significant mediating roles in the impact of the digital economy on food security. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promoting effect of the digital economy on food security varies significantly across regions: it is significantly positive in the eastern and northern regions, while it is not significant in the central, western, and southern regions. Based on these findings, suggesting that region-specific digital economy development policies should be formulated to strengthen agricultural technological innovation and land transfer mechanisms, thereby enhancing the positive incentive effect of the digital economy on food security.