热带地理2026，Vol.46Issue(9)：1709-1722,14.DOI:10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.20250848
数字经济如何影响高校毕业生就业流动
How does the Digital Economy affect the Intercity Migration of University Graduates?
摘要
Abstract
The development of the digital economy can effectively alleviate labor market pressures,and university graduates,with their high educational backgrounds and strong competencies,have demonstrated considerable adaptability to the digital economy.By creating diverse employment and entrepreneurial opportunities,the digital economy has become an increasingly important factor shaping the intercity migration of university graduates.Consequently,its influence on graduate migration has attracted growing attention from both scholars and policymakers.Traditional migration theories,including push-pull theory,human capital theory,and social network theory,require re-examination and refinement to account for the transformative effects of the digital economy.However,empirical research on the relationship between digital economic development and the intercity migration of university graduates remains limited,and a systematic theoretical framework comprehensively explaining the underlying mechanisms is still lacking.Therefore,using employment survey data on Chinese university graduates in 2022 combined with city-level socioeconomic statistics,this study constructs a nested Logit model to examine the impact of digital economic development on the intercity migration of university graduates at both the city and individual levels.It further investigates the mechanisms through which urban digital economic development influences graduate migration and examines the heterogeneity of these effects.By incorporating the contemporary context of digital economic transformation into the analysis of graduate mobility,this study extends the literature on university graduate migration and provides new empirical evidence on the role of digital economic development in shaping migration decisions.The benchmark regression results show that higher levels of urban digital economic development significantly increase the inflow of university graduates,and this finding remains robust across multiple robustness tests.The heterogeneity analysis indicates that this effect is stronger among graduates majoring in the humanities and social sciences,those without computer-related certificates,and those from families with lower annual incomes or whose parents are not employed in managerial or technical occupations.Moreover,cities with more advanced digital economies and those located in China's central and western regions exhibit a stronger ability to attract university graduates.These findings suggest that digital economic development has not created a new"digital divide."Instead,it has reduced the influence of both human capital and family background on graduates' employment outcomes,thereby promoting social equity and stability.At the same time,the digital economy has contributed to a more balanced spatial distribution of university graduates,with cities characterized by higher levels of digital economic development-particularly those in the central and western regions-becoming increasingly attractive destinations,thereby fostering a pattern of"digital return migration."Furthermore,digital industrialization exerts a significantly stronger positive effect on the inflow of university graduates than industrial digitalization.The mediating mechanism analysis shows that digital economic development promotes graduate inflows by enhancing urban technological capacity and expanding employment opportunities,while simultaneously discouraging migration by increasing urban living costs.The moderating mechanism analysis further demonstrates that industrial upgrading and market expansion strengthen the positive effect of digital economic development on attracting university graduates.Overall,the findings provide important policy implications for promoting high-quality and full employment among university graduates while supporting the high-quality development of the digital economy across Chinese cities.关键词
数字经济/城市间就业流动/高校毕业生/嵌套Logit模型Key words
digital economy/intercity migration/university graduates/Nested Logit Model分类
管理科学引用本文复制引用
周少琛,劳昕,黄启..数字经济如何影响高校毕业生就业流动[J].热带地理,2026,46(9):1709-1722,14.基金项目
国家自然科学基金青年项目(42101226) （42101226）
北京市社会科学基金规划项目青年项目(21JJC028) （21JJC028）
