ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Agricultural Technologies for Improving Food Security OutcomesView all 10 articles
How does digital economy affect food system resilience? —— A quasi-natural experiment on China's smart city pilot policy using double machine learning
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
- 2Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
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Introduction: Digitalization has facilitated the transformation and modernization of traditional agricultural inputs, leading to the fast expansion of the digital economy in recent years, which presents a crucial opportunity to bolster food system resilience (FSR). This study utilizes a double machine learning (DML) approach and exploits China's Smart City Pilot (SC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the internal mechanisms through which the digital economy impacts FSR, thereby offering valuable implications for global food security. Methods: This study considers China's SC policy as an exogenous shock to denote the advancement of the digital economy. It uses a DML model to evaluate the influence of the digital economy on FSR and its underlying mechanisms, as well as a spatial econometric model to investigate potential spillover effects. Results and Discussion: The digital economy significantly enhances FSR. The development of digital inclusive finance, enhancement of agricultural labor productivity, and the deepening of agricultural product processing constitute critical pathways through which the digital economy contributes to FSR. The digital economy exerts a more pronounced influence on enhancing the adaptive and transformative dimensions of FSR, particularly by fostering synergies with major grain-producing regions. Moreover, the positive effects of the digital economy on FSR are more pronounced in regions characterized by higher farmer income levels, more developed economies, and greater degrees of urbanization. Further analysis indicates that the digital economy generates positive spatial spillover effects on FSR, indicating that it not only strengthens local resilience but also promotes improvements in neighboring regions. Conclusion: To further strengthen FSR, it is imperative to enhance digital infrastructure and develop a solid digital basis. Systematically drive comprehensive digital transformation throughout the whole food industry chain to boost food production along with quality. A coordinated digital economy development strategy should be devised.
Keywords: Food system resilience, digital economy, Food security, Smart city pilot, Doublemachine learning
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Cheng, Chen and Zeng. 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: Huasheng Zeng, huashengz@yzu.edu.cn
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