Speed of digital transformation, government investment in technology, and government efficiency

Digital transformation is an essential pathway to enhancing government effectiveness, and maintaining an appropriate pace of development is of great importance. Using provincial panel data as a sample, this paper first constructs an indicator system for digital transformation and government efficiency, measures the pace of digital transformation and government efficiency, analyzes the theoretical impact of digital transformation speed on government efficiency, and empirically examines the moderating role of government technology investment in this relationship. The findings reveal that the pace of digital transformation is negatively correlated with government efficiency, a conclusion that remains valid after robustness tests and endogeneity treatment. Government science and technology investment exerts a negative moderating effect on the impact of digital transformation speed on government effectiveness. Under excessively high government technology investment, accelerated digital transformation significantly inhibits government effectiveness. When government effectiveness is low, accelerating digital transformation further suppresses effectiveness. Only when government effectiveness exceeds a certain threshold does accelerated digital transformation benefit government effectiveness. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that accelerating digital transformation significantly inhibits government effectiveness in eastern and central regions, but not in western regions. The speed of digital transformation significantly inhibits government effectiveness in groups with high government governance levels and in groups with low or medium levels of digital economic development. Based on these findings, recommendations are proposed for optimizing the pacing of digital transformation and related policy measures.