Efficiency evaluation of China's digital economy based on DEA-Malmquist-Tobit model

China and other countries around the world have made the development of the digital economy (DE) a key focus of national growth. The digital economy offers numerous advantages, such as enhancing the efficiency of economic systems, improving the direction of market economic development. This paper primarily studies the status of the digital economy across 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2023. It first employs a three-stage DEA model to calculate the output efficiency of the digital economy and compares the efficiency values of each decision-making unit (DMU) after removing environmental impact factors in both the first and third stages. Then, the Malmquist index is used to analyze the trend in digital economy efficiency. Finally, a Tobit regression model explores the degree of influence each environmental variable has on the independent variable.