Can Digital Economy Promote Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Heavily Polluting Enterprises? Empirical Evidence from China

Influences of the ongoing digital transformation of the Chinese Economy on innovation of sustainable green technologies

Green technology innovation (GI) is a key factor in reconciling environmental protection with sustainable economic development. Routinely, GI in private companies have been delayed due to suspicious of pitfalls investments, which result in low return rates. Nevertheless, the digital transformation of Nations' Economies (DE) might be sustainably sound in terms of natural resources demands and environmental pollution. Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Enterprises (ECEPEs) database was analyzed from 2011 to 2019 at the municipality level to measure the effect and influence of DE on GI in Chinese ECEPEs. The results suggest that DE has a significant positive influence on GI of ECEPEs. Moreover, the influencing mechanism statistical tests reveal that DE can promote GI of ECEPEs by improving internal controls and financing opportunities. Heterogeneous statistical analysis, however, indicates that the promotion of DE on GI might be constrained over the country. In general, DE can promote both high- and low-quality GI but preferably the latter.

Can the digital economy development achieve the effect of pollution reduction? Evidence from Chinese Cities

As a new economic form, the digital economy is not only empowering new impetus to economic growth, but also reshaping specific business forms of economical operation. Therefore, we conducted an empirical test to verify the impact and mechanism of pollution reduction in the digital economy, based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that, first the development of the digital economy indeed has the positive effect of realizing pollution reduction. The results of mediating effect test indicate the influence mechanism mainly rely on promoting the upgrading of industrial structure (structural effect) and upgrading the level of green technology innovation (technical effect). Second, the results of regional heterogeneity analysis show that the emission reduction effect of digital economy development on four pollutants is characterized by weakness in the east and strong in the west in regional distribution. Third, the development of digital economy has a threshold effect on the level of economic development to achieve its pollution reduction effect. Further identification of the threshold effect indicates that the higher the level of economic development, the better in emission reduction effect.

Does digital inclusive finance affect the urban green economic efficiency? New evidence from the spatial econometric analysis of 284 cities in China

Digital inclusive finance has an essential impact on improving the urban green economy efficiency by demonstrating environmental friendliness in agglomerating factors and promoting the flow of factors. Based on the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model with undesirable outputs to measure the urban green economy efficiency. Then, the fixed effect model and spatial econometric model of panel data are used to empirically test the impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green economic efficiency and its spatial spillover effect, and the heterogeneity analysis is carried out. This paper draws the following conclusions. (1) The average value of urban green economic efficiency of 284 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020 is 0.5916, showing a "high in the east and low in the west." In terms of time, it showed a rising trend year by year. (2) Digital financial inclusion and urban green economy efficiency have a high spatial correlation, both showing "high-high" and "low-low" agglomeration characteristics. (3) Digital inclusive finance significantly impacts urban green economic efficiency, especially in the eastern region. (4) The impact of digital inclusive finance on urban green economic efficiency has a spatial spillover effect. In the eastern and central regions, digital inclusive finance will inhibit the improvement of urban green economic efficiency in adjacent cities. In contrast, it will promote urban green economy efficiency in the western regions in adjacent cities. (5) The coverage and depth of digital inclusive finance significantly affect the urban green economy efficiency, while the level of digitization has yet to show a significant effect. This paper puts forward some suggestions and references for promoting the coordinated development of digital inclusive finance in various regions and improving urban green economic efficiency.

Digitalization, Electricity Consumption and Carbon Emissions-Evidence from Manufacturing Industries in China

The development of China's manufacturing industry is constrained by factors such as energy and resources, and low-carbon development is arduous. Digitalization is an important method to transform and upgrade traditional industries. Based on the panel data of 13 manufacturing industries in China from 2007 to 2019, a regression model and a threshold model were used to empirically test the impact of digitalization and electricity consumption on carbon emissions. The research results were as follows: (1) The digitalization level of China's manufacturing industry was steadily increasing; (2) The proportion of electricity consumption in China's manufacturing industries in the total electricity consumption hardly changed from 2007 to 2019, basically maintaining at about 6.8%. The total power consumption increased by about 2.1 times. (3) From 2007 to 2019, the total carbon emissions of China's manufacturing industry increased, but the carbon emissions of some manufacturing industries decreased. (4) There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between digitalization and carbon emissions, the higher the level of digitalization input, the greater the carbon emissions of the manufacturing industry. However, when digitalization develops to a certain extent, it will also suppress carbon emissions to a certain extent. (5) There was a significant positive correlation between electricity consumption and carbon emissions in the manufacturing industry. (6) There were double energy thresholds for the impact of labor-intensive and technology-intensive manufacturing digitalization on carbon emissions, but only a single economic threshold and scale threshold. There was a single scale threshold for capital-intensive manufacturing, and the value was -0.5352. This research provides possible countermeasures and policy recommendations for digitalization to empower the low-carbon development of China's manufacturing industry.

Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?

In the context of environmental sustainability and accelerated digital technology development, China attaches great importance to the prominent role of digital economy in addressing environmental degradation. Utilizing Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this study investigates whether the digital economy can improve China's environmental sustainability proxy by reducing carbon emission intensity. Based on the fixed effects model, the findings reveal that the digital economy has a significant negative effect on carbon emission intensity and the conclusion remains robust after conducting several robustness checks. However, this impact shows regional heterogeneity, which is more effective in resource-based eastern regions and the Belt and Road provinces. Moreover, mediating effect analyses indicate that the transmission mechanisms are energy consumption structure, total factor energy productivity, and green technology innovation. Furthermore, the results based on the spatial Durbin model (SDM) demonstrate that digital economy development has a significant spatial spillover effect. Finally, on the basis of results analysis and discussion, policy recommendations are provided for achieving environmental sustainability.

Impact of Digital Economy Development on Carbon Emission Efficiency: A Spatial Econometric Analysis Based on Chinese Provinces and Cities

In the realistic context of the development of China's digital economy and carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, to efficiently achieve high-quality economic and green and low-carbon transformation, this paper investigates the impact of digital economy development on the carbon emission efficiency of 30 Chinese provinces and cities from 2011-2019. In this paper, firstly, the digital economy development index and carbon emission efficiency are calculated by the entropy method and the Super-SBM-Undesirable Model. Secondly, the Spatial Lag Model (SAR) and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) are respectively constructed under the adjacency matrix and the geographic distance matrix to empirically test the spatial impact of the digital economy on carbon emission efficiency. The results show that: the digital economy development and carbon emission efficiency of Chinese provinces and cities both show the spatial distribution characteristics of stronger in the East and weaker in the Middle and West; the digital economy development in Chinese provinces and cities has a significantly positive direct and spatial spillover effect on carbon emission efficiency; there are differences in the direct and spatial spillover effects of various dimensions of the digital economy development on the carbon emission efficiency in Chinese provinces and cities; the direct effect of the digital economy development on the carbon emission efficiency in Chinese provinces and cities has significant regional heterogeneity among eastern, central, and western regions. This paper provides new empirical evidence for developing countries such as China to proactively develop a digital economy to promote energy conservation and emission reduction to realize green and low-carbon transformation.