The Impact of Digital Finance on Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency: Evidence at China’s City Level

Yang Liu, Ruochan Xiong, Shigong Lv and Da Gao
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Yang Liu: School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Ruochan Xiong: School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Shigong Lv: School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Da Gao: School of Literature, Law and Economics, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: The rapid development of digital finance has delivered significant benefits, such as sustainable development and economic growth. We explore the relationship between digital finance and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) for the first time, filling a gap in the existing literature. This paper uses dynamic panel models to explore digital finance’s impact on GTFEE at the Chinese city-level panel data from 2011 to 2018. The results show that digital finance can significantly improve urban GTFEE, and the findings remain robust with various tests. Second, the mechanism analysis indicates that digital finance can improve GTFEE by promoting urban green technology innovation and industrial structure upgrading. Further study shows that digital finance has a better effect on the improvement of GTFEE in central and western cities, small cities and non-resource-based cities, but has no significant or small impact on GTFEE in eastern cities, large cities and resource-based cities, reflecting the inclusiveness of digital finance.

Keywords: digital finance; green total factor energy efficiency; green technology innovation; industrial structure upgrading (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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