Abstract: The process of deep integration between the digital economy and the real economy is accelerating, and it is reshaping the spatial development pattern of China’s economy. Existing research is more based on national level analysis, lacking analysis from regional and spatial perspectives, and paying less attention to the role of urban heterogeneity in the impact mechanism. This article uses panel data from 80 cities in the central region from 2011 to 2019 to analyze the spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on industrial structure changes, and further explores the impact mechanism through intermediary effects and threshold effects. The research results indicate that, based on the testing and decomposition of spatial effects, the digital economy has a positive impact on the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure in both local and adjacent cities; According to the mechanism analysis results, central cities have played an important intermediary role in the impact of digital economy on industrial structure changes. The digital economy will increase the primacy of provincial capital cities, thereby promoting the rationalization of industrial structure. At the same time, the digital economy has a positive impact on the rationalization and advancement of industrial structure by narrowing the differences in industrial structure; Further research has found that the regulation of industrial structure changes by the digital economy has non-linear characteristics. When the scale of the central city is too large, the impact of the digital economy on the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure will decrease.

Key words: central region, digital economy, industrial structure, spatial spillover effect