ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1660857
The Impact of Digital Economy Development on Subjective Well-Being: Micro-Level Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted
- Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
In the era of digital transformation, understanding the welfare implications of societal changes has become a critical area of research. This study combines data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) for the years 2018, 2020, and 2022 with metrics of regional digital economy development to examine how digital economy development influences subjective well-being (SWB) and the underlying mechanisms. The findings indicate that digital economy development significantly enhances SWB through key channels such as digital applications, information acquisition, and digital living environments. Heterogeneous regression analyses reveal that the positive impact varies significantly with age and frequency of digital technology usage. Mediation effect tests show that the digital economy primarily affects SWB through economic, health, life quality, environmental, and governance pathways. Based on these conclusions, the study proposes recommendations to strengthen digital infrastructure, establish tiered intervention mechanisms and dynamic evaluation systems, and develop a new paradigm of digital governance that balances efficiency and fairness. These insights aim to improve overall societal welfare and quality of life in the context of digital economic development.
Keywords: digital economy, Subjective well-being, digital divide, Smart living environment, sense of happiness
Received: 10 Jul 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Li and Li. 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: Zihan Yang, zihan@xynu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.