Who benefits from public data authorized operation? Spatially heterogeneous effects across China's urban hierarchy

Abstract

Marketized data governance regimes condition public-data access on accreditation, compliance, and complementary assets, yet their spatial consequences remain unclear. Using a balanced panel of 251 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2020 to 2024, this paper examines China's Public Data Authorized Operation (PDAO) framework. Three findings emerge. First, PDAO adoption is associated with a positive average estimate for local enterprise stock, with especially large estimates for Tier-1 cities. Second, estimated effects follow pre-existing spatial structures, including the core–periphery hierarchy and the Hu Line. Third, the preferred Spatial Durbin and LeSage–Pace decompositions do not detect a statistically significant cross-city indirect effect. These findings show that the local economic effects associated with PDAO adoption are highly uneven across China's urban hierarchy. The observed gradient is consistent with a complementary-asset interpretation, although the research design does not separately identify this mechanism from other policy effects interacting with pre-existing urban endowments.