ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Digital Impacts
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2025.1669238
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Citizenship in the New Era of Social MediaView all 15 articles
Digital Economy and Urban Insurance Demand: Empirical Evidence from 289 Cities in China
Provisionally accepted
- Dr. Neher’s Biophysics Laboratory for Innovative Drug Discovery, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, Macao, SAR China
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Against the backdrop of the digital economy profoundly leading the modernization of industrial systems and structures, this study focuses on the impact mechanism of the digital economy on urban insurance demand. Based on panel data from 289 cities in China between 2007 and 2022, a two-way fixed effects model is constructed, and empirical research is conducted using an instrumental variable approach and heterogeneity analysis. The findings are as follows: First, the direct driving effect of the digital economy. The digital economy has a significant positive impact on total insurance demand (TID), property insurance demand (PID), and health insurance demand (HID), with its effect on HID being approximately 1.53 times that on PID, reflecting the more prominent role of health protection demand under the influence of the digital economy. Second, the reinforcing logic of moderating and mediating effects. Economic development level (EDL) significantly strengthens the driving effect of the digital economy on PID by improving digital infrastructure and diversifying demand; human capital level (HCL) comprehensively amplifies the digital driving effect on insurance demand by enhancing the digital adaptation capacity of both supply and demand sides. Meanwhile, the digital economy promotes insurance demand by boosting consumption expenditure (CE). Third, regional heterogeneity characteristics. The impact of the digital economy on insurance demand exhibits a spatial pattern of "stronger in the north than in the south, and stronger in inland areas than in coastal areas." This study provides mechanistic insights and policy optimization pathways to address the regional disparities in the synergistic development of the digital economy and urban insurance.
Keywords: digital economy, Insurance demand, Human Capital, Economic Development, consumption expenditure
Received: 19 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mengyadi Liang, rjyh2365895@outlook.com
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