Exploring the Role of Digital Economy in Reducing Natural Resource Dependence: An Empirical Study From Resource‐Based Cities in China

ABSTRACT The potential of the digital economy to mitigate resource dependence by affecting industrial structure is a topic of great significance for the transformation of resource‐based cities. This paper presents a digital economy development index and employs data sourced from 102 Chinese resource‐based cities from 2011 to 2019 to investigate the impact of the digital economy on resource dependence in resource‐based cities. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) The digital economy has an inhibitory effect on resource dependence. (2) By decomposing industrial structure upgrading into industrial structure rationalization and industrial structure advancement, it becomes evident that the digital economy reduces resource dependence by facilitating industrial structure advancement. (3) The digital economy exerts a more pronounced negative influence in the eastern and central regions, thereby substantiating the presence of regional heterogeneity. This study elucidates the extent to which the digital economy mitigates resource dependence and offers invaluable insights for guiding the transformation of resource‐based cities.