Abstract: Improving the resilience and safety level of the manufacturing industrial chain is not only the need to build a new development pattern, but also the core content of constructing a modern economic system with Chinese characteristics. Based on the panel data of prefecture level cities in China from 2012 to 2022, this study explores the role and spatial effects of the digital economy in enhancing the resilience of the manufacturing industry chain. The findings show that, firstly, digital industrialization has driven the deepening of the data value chain through digital technology, and the digitization of industries has strengthened the basic capabilities of traditional industries through the use of digital technology, jointly driving the modernization and upgrading of the manufacturing industry chain. Secondly, the positive impact of the digital economy on the resilience of the manufacturing industry chain exhibits a non-linear characteristic of increasing marginal effects, indicating that the “Metcalfe's Law”is fully applicable in upgrading the resilience of the manufacturing industry chain. Thirdly, the digital economy can improve the resilience of the manufacturing industry chain by strengthening the synergistic agglomeration effect and enhancing the technological innovation effect of industries. Fourthly, the digital economy has a positive spatial spillover effect on the resilience of the manufacturing industry chain. Therefore, policies for industrial chain reform should be optimized around the external spillover effects of the digital economy, with a focus on technological innovation and industrial synergy agglomeration. Policies should be classified and implemented to further enhance the resilience and independent controllability of the manufacturing industry chain.

Key words: digital economy, technological innovation, industrial collaborative agglomeration, industrial chain resilience, space overflow