TITLE:
Data Factor Empowers New Quality Productive Forces: Evidence from China
AUTHORS:
Qiang He, Yue Yan
KEYWORDS:
Data Factor, New Quality Productive Forces, Industry-University-Research Cooperation, Industrial Structure Optimization
JOURNAL NAME:
Chinese Studies,
Vol.15 No.1,
December
25,
2025
ABSTRACT: In recent years, with its powerful enabling effect, data factor has become a crucial engine for generating and fostering new quality productive forces. Based on constructing a theoretical framework for how data factor empowers new quality productive forces, this paper utilizes provincial panel data of China from 2011 to 2023, and employs bidirectional fixed-effects and mediating-effect panel models to empirically examine the impact mechanism of data factor on new quality productive forces. The results indicate that data factor significantly and robustly promotes new quality productive forces. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the driving effect of data factor exhibits notable spatial gradient differences and is more pronounced in regions with a relatively strong foundation in data factor or new quality productive forces, reflecting a self-reinforcing characteristic of “the strong getting stronger”. Mechanism tests demonstrate that data factor can indirectly empower the development of new quality productive forces through two pathways: promoting industry-university-research collaboration and optimizing industrial structure. This study contributes to deepening the understanding of the internal logic of how data factor empowers new quality productive forces, and provides references for relevant policy formulation to better unleash the value of data factor and systematically enhance the development of new quality productive forces.