Abstract: Urban shrinkage has become a real problem that needs to be solved urgently in the process of urbanization in China, and the construction of digital infrastructure provides new opportunities to alleviate urban contraction and promote coordinated urban development. Based on the 2007-2022 urban panel data, this study uses the year-end resident population to identify urban contraction, and considers the “Broadband China”pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment to conduct an empirical test with the difference-in-differences method. The results show that digital infrastructure development can significantly mitigate urban contraction. The path analyses reveals that the quality of the urban environment as well as entrepreneurial activity are important channels for digital infrastructure development to mitigate urban contraction. Further analysis reveals that the mitigating effect of promoting digital infrastructure on urban contraction is asymmetric, with the mitigating effect mainly found in the central and western regions, the peripheral cities, the cities with lower standard of education, and the non-resource-based cities. These findings show that the underdeveloped areas should focus on consolidating the foundation of digital infrastructure construction, bridging the economic development gap, guiding digital infrastructure construction to promote urban development at a higher level, and thus alleviate urban shrinkage.

Key words: digital infrastructure development, “Broadband China”strategy, urban shrinkage, double-difference model