Abstract:In order to accelerate the development of regional digital economy so as to drive the overall development of regional economy, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of digital economy development level based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2019, obtains the digital economy development level score of each province, and constructs an asymptotic double difference model to empirically test the effect of national big data comprehensive pilot zones on the development of regional digital economy, further analyses the effects of regional heterogeneity and differences in the types of pilot zones, so as to explore the influence paths of creating national big data comprehensive pilot zones on the development of regional digital economy. The results show that the policy effects of creating national big data comprehensive pilot zones significantly contribute to the development of regional digital economy, and the effects are related to the degree of regional development, with a more significant effect on the east of China, but also providing opportunities for less developed regions of China to catch up in digital economy; in the short term, the difference in impact effects is not significant, but in the long term, the cross-regional pilot zones have more far-reaching policy effects; the impact paths on the regional digital economy development are manifested in the adjustment of regional industrial structure, the improvement of government management capacity and the regulation of market environment. Finally, based on the above findings, the paper proposes some policy recommendations such as implementing the big data strategy, constructing a development evaluation system and innovating a business model suitable for the development of the digital economy.