🤖 AI Summary
This paper investigates how datafication reshapes the dynamic general equilibrium between consumption and capital accumulation by catalyzing technological progress. Method: We develop a representative-agent model incorporating data as a production factor, derive theoretically the nonlinear mechanisms through which datafication and technological progress jointly affect equilibrium paths, and conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) empirical analysis leveraging China’s open-data policy reforms. Contribution/Results: We find that datafication not only accelerates the economic translation of technological progress but also significantly extends the duration of its positive growth effects. Numerical simulations and phase-diagram analysis further demonstrate that datafication stabilizes the equilibrium and raises the steady-state level of output. These findings provide microfoundations and macroeconomic evidence supporting the proposition that “data—as a novel factor of production—enables high-quality development.”
📝 Abstract
This paper constructs a clean and efficient representative agent model of the data economy from a macroeconomics perspective, in order to analyze the impact of datatization and technological progress on the dynamic general equilibrium of 'consumption-capital', and the catalysis effect of datatization on technological progress. We first set the data in production comes from datatization of the total output of the society and is exponentially functionally related to the technology. Secondly, the data production function is used to solve the optimization problem for firms and households and to construct a dynamic general equilibrium of 'consumption-capital' based on the endogenous interest rate solved by maximizing the returns of firms. Finally, by using numerical simulation and phase diagram analysis, we find that the effects of increasing datatization and encouraging technological progress each exhibit different nonlinear characteristics for equilibrium capital and equilibrium consumption, we thus conclude that datatization enables the positive effects of technological progress on economic development to be more rapid and persistent. We select two types of Chinese policies regarding data openness to represent the role of datatization, and demonstrate the catalysis role of datatization for the development of the digital economy by setting up difference in difference (DID) experiments, which provide persuasive evidence for the theoretical interpretation of the paper.