Digital Economy and Energy Intensity: The Light and Dark Side

Zheng-Yuan Yang and Lei Ye
Additional contact information
Zheng-Yuan Yang: School of Marxism, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Lei Ye: School of Marxism, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Review of Economic Assessment, 2024, vol. 3, issue 4, 70-92

Abstract: The digital economy exerts both positive and negative influences on urban sustainable development, yet there is a notable gap in the existing research concerning its impact on energy intensity and the underlying mechanisms. this study pioneers the investigation of a nonlinear relationship between the digital economy and energy intensity, revealing a significant inverted U-shaped relationship. Specifically, we observe a noteworthy reduction in energy intensity when the digital economy index surpasses 0.286. Our empirical findings indicate that the digital economy not only directly influences energy intensity but also exerts an indirect impact through initiatives such as the promotion of green innovation and the agglomeration of high-tech industries. Importantly, the promotional effects of the digital economy exhibit heterogeneity with respect to geographical location, resource endowment, and urban scale. This paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of information technology in urban green development by analyzing the mechanisms of the digital economy at the urban level and its intricate impact on energy intensity.

Keywords: Digital Economy; Energy Intensity; Green Innovation; High-Tech Industrial Agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.anserpress.org/journal/rea/3/4/42/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.anserpress.org/journal/rea/3/4/42 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bba:j00010:v:3:y:2024:i:4:p:70-92:d:407

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economic Assessment is currently edited by Ramona Wang

More articles in Review of Economic Assessment from Anser Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ramona Wang ().