西安交通大学学报（社会科学版）2026，Vol.46Issue(2)：14-25,12.DOI:10.15896/j.xjtuskxb.202602002
向"天空"要"效益":低空经济何以驱动经济高质量发展
Harnessing the Sky for Returns:How Can the Low-Altitude Economy Drive High-Quality Economic Development?
摘要
Abstract
The low-altitude economy is evolving into a strategic emerging industry,underpinned by its integrated characteristics as a manufacturing base,a public resource,and a consumer-oriented service.It is rapidly taking shape as a new economic form with trillion-yuan market potential,emerging as a key engine for high-quality economic development.This study systematically reviews the three-stage evolution of the relationship between the low-altitude economy and economic growth—identified as the foundation-building,exploration,and activation phases—and develops a three-dimensional"micro-meso-macro"framework to analyze the underlying mechanisms through which the low-altitude economy enables high-quality development. At the micro level,the low-altitude economy reshapes the behavior of market entities and transforms growth drivers.First,it restructures production paradigms by transforming airspace into a new factor of production.When integrated with digital technologies,this fosters new forms of labor and land use,leading to increasing returns to scale.Second,it alters firms'cost structures:its manufacturing attribute lowers fixed-cost barriers,while its public-resource nature helps curb variable costs,collectively pushing the long-run average cost curve downward and redefining market competition.Third,it reshapes consumer behavior.Services such as low-altitude logistics and mobility break spatial and temporal constraints,broadening consumer choice sets,optimizing demand elasticity,and enhancing consumer utility.Fourth,it improves market equilibrium mechanisms.Supported by intelligent air traffic management and dynamic pricing,it raises the efficiency of spatial resource allocation and promotes Pareto improvements. At the meso level,the low-altitude economy promotes industrial upgrading and modernization through dynamic evolution.First,industrial linkage effects foster vertical integration of industrial chains via its manufacturing attribute,while its public-resource attribute enables horizontal industrial convergence,together building a multidimensional collaborative network.Second,innovation mechanisms are strengthened:manufacturing drives technological innovation,while the public-resource function provides institutional support and standards,jointly cultivating an innovation ecosystem for the low-altitude industry.Third,industrial restructuring is guided through technology substitution—improving traditional industries—and complementary effects—spurring new service sectors,thereby advancing the industrial system toward higher value-added forms.Fourth,industrial convergence breaks traditional sectoral boundaries,spawning new business models and reshaping value creation pathways. At the macro level,introducing airspace as a factor of production induces structural shifts in growth drivers.First,factor expansion breaks traditional growth constraints and reconfigures the factor base of the economy.Second,an efficiency revolution unfolds:the three-dimensional extensibility of airspace resources,combined with intelligent capital networks,expands the production possibility frontier and steers growth patterns toward Pareto efficiency.Third,total factor productivity rises through a synergistic innovation ecosystem that integrates technology,institutions,and market forces,supporting sustained productivity growth. The low-altitude economy plays three key roles in building a modern industrial system:it helps foster strategic emerging industries by diversifying technological-path risks through factor expansion and institutional innovation;it facilitates the early layout of future industries by using three-dimensional network infrastructure to reduce geographic barriers and accelerate technology diffusion;and it contributes to perfecting the modern industrial system by strengthening supply chain resilience,deepening industrial integration,and improving overall resource allocation efficiency. This study preliminarily reveals the internal logic and multidimensional pathways through which the low-altitude economy drives high-quality economic development,offering a systematic analytical framework for understanding its theoretical and practical significance.The findings provide a reference for policymakers in top-level design,policy refinement,and regional planning,supporting targeted guidance for the development of the low-altitude economy,activating its potential as a multidimensional growth pole,and effectively promoting high-quality economic development.关键词
低空经济/高质量发展/空域资源开发/市场主体重塑/低空产业演进/经济增长动力变革/现代化产业体系Key words
low-altitude economy/high-quality development/airspace resource utilization/market entity restructuring/low-altitude industry evolution/transformation of economic growth drivers/modern industrial system分类
管理科学引用本文复制引用
顾冬冬,吴国宝..向"天空"要"效益":低空经济何以驱动经济高质量发展[J].西安交通大学学报（社会科学版）,2026,46(2):14-25,12.基金项目
国家社会科学基金重大项目(22&ZD059) （22&ZD059）
中国社会科学院大学研究生科研创新支持计划项目(2025-KY-054). （2025-KY-054）
