Abstract: The digital economy has become an important engine to promote the development of new quality productive forces and a driving force to promote Chinese-style modernization. Under significant financial pressure, it is crucial for local governments to utilize limited financial investment to promote the rapid development of the digital economy. Based on the provincial panel data from 2013 to 2022 in China, this paper investigates the impact and mechanism of fiscal technology investment intensity on the development of the digital economy. The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between fiscal technology investment intensity and the level of digital economy development, and with the increase of fiscal technology investment intensity, both the digital industrialization and industrial digitization levels show a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The mechanism analysis shows that a higher intensity of fiscal science and technology input is not conducive to the formation of digital human capital, the construction of digital infrastructure, and the improvement of technology market activity. The heterogeneity analysis shows that in the samples of the eastern region, better economic base and poorer business environment, the inverted U-shaped relationship between the intensity of fiscal science and technology input and the digital economy is more obvious. Therefore, it is recommended to continuously optimize the direction of fiscal science and technology input, and improve the efficiency of fiscal fund utilization; to make fiscal science and technology input plans based on local conditions, and promote the coordinated development of regional digital economy; to strengthen the research and development of digital technology and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and empower the development of new quality productivity forces.

Key words: fiscal science and technology input intensity, fiscal pressure, digital economy, digital industrialization, industrial digitization