 Does digital economy improve city-level eco-efficiency in China?Aolin Lai, Zhenran Li, Xiurong Hu and Qunwei Wang Economic Analysis and Policy, 2024, vol. 81, issue C, 1198-1213 Abstract: Previous research focused on the impact of the digital economy on economic development, but did not consider its impact on eco-efficiency. We address this gap by taking China's national big data comprehensive pilot zone (NBD-CPZ) as a quasi-natural experiment, and evaluating its impact on city eco-efficiency using data for 284 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2020. The study found that the NBD-CPZ significantly improved city eco-efficiency, and this impact increased gradually over time. A mechanism analysis shows that the NBD-CPZ impacted city eco-efficiency by reducing mismatched resources and promoting green technology advances. A heterogeneity analysis indicates that the NBD-CPZ's effect on city eco-efficiency was more significant in old industrial cities, resource-based cities, and cities with high energy intensity. This study provides empirical evidence and highlights policy implications for narrowing the ecological civilization disparities between regions from the perspective of a digital economy. Keywords: Digital economy; Eco-efficiency; Big data comprehensive pilot zone; Ecological civilization disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:81:y:2024:i:c:p:1198-1213 DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.02.006 Access Statistics for this article Economic Analysis and Policy is currently edited by Clevo Wilson More articles in Economic Analysis and Policy from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.