Digital Economy and Urban Green Development: Regional Heterogeneity and Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities
Haoqing Ding et al.
Abstract
The convergence of digitalization and greening is emerging as a focal point for scholars. Existing research has predominantly examined the linear effects of these two factors at the provincial and municipal levels, with scant attention paid to their non-linear relationship or to the heterogeneity within urban agglomerations. This study employs a panel regression with two-way fixed effects based on data from 280 Chinese cities spanning 2011 to 2019. The results indicate that in the short term, the negative externalities and “digital divide” arising from digitalization may impede urban green development. Over the medium to long run, once digitalization reaches maturity it overcomes these frictions and becomes a net driver of green progress. Specifically, a 1 % increase in the level of digital economic development will elevate the level of urban green development by 0.0159 %. The promotion of urban green development by the digital economy exhibits heterogeneous effects, with key urban agglomerations, economically developed cities in the eastern region, and high-tier cities exhibiting positive effects. The implementation of the policy of “Innovative Cities” has also significantly enhanced the urban green development of pilot cities. Finally, this study proposes policy recommendations to strengthen the digital economy development and implement green development strategies tailored to local conditions.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.