In rich areas, spending more on digital government services eventually starts making things less efficient.
March 19, 2026
Original Paper
The "Efficiency Paradox" and Regional Differentiation of Digital Governance: An Empirical Study Based on Rural Public Services in Jiangsu Province
SSRN · 6439420
The Takeaway
While we assume more technology always makes government more efficient, this study found a critical threshold where digital investment stops helping. In highly developed areas, further tech spending creates 'transformation bottlenecks' where the tools actually slow down public service delivery.
From the abstract
Against the backdrop of the deep integration of the Digital China initiative and the rural revitalization strategy, exploring the impact of digital governance on the efficiency of rural public services and its regional differences is of great significance. Based on the "Technology-Institution-Efficiency" analytical framework, this paper systematically examines the main effect and regional heterogeneous characteristics of digital governance on the efficiency of rural public services by using pane