How social security expenditure and the digital economy shape regional economic resilience?

In the current complex and ever-changing economic situation, regional economic resilience has drawn much attention. Delving deeply into the effects and underlying mechanisms of social security expenditure and digital economy (DE) development on regional economic resilience(REC) holds significant theoretical and practical value for optimizing policy-making and promoting stable regional economic development. Leveraging panel data spanning from 2009 to 2023 across 31 provincial-level administrative regions in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), this study adopts a fixed-effects approach to thoroughly investigate how social security expenditures and the progression of DE influence REC, delving into both their efficacy and the mechanisms at play. The research conclusions are as follows: First, social security expenditure has a significantly positive driving effect on enhancing REC; second, the development of the DE has a notably significant effect on strengthening REC; third, DE development plays a significantly moderating role in the process by which social security expenditure affects REC; fourth, from a regional perspective, the impact of social security expenditure on REC varies significantly across the eastern, central, and western regions; fifth, in terms of population size, the impact of social security expenditure on REC exhibits heterogeneity across regions with different population sizes; sixth, at the regional level, the impact of DE development on REC shows distinct characteristics across the eastern, central, and western regions; seventh, from the perspective of population size, the impact of DE development on REC varies significantly across regions with different population sizes.