Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Urban Carbon Emission Intensity: From the Perspective of Green and Low-Carbon Travel and Clean Energy

Zhi Su and Ruijie Cao ()
Additional contact information
Zhi Su: School of Statistics and Mathematics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China
Ruijie Cao: School of Statistics and Mathematics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: This paper uses the non-balanced panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2017 and the Peking University Digital Inclusive Finance Index to examine the impact of the development of digital inclusive finance on urban carbon emission intensity. The results show that the development of digital inclusive finance has a significantly negative impact on urban carbon emission intensity. By using the spherical distance between various cities and Hangzhou as an instrumental variable to deal with the potential endogeneity problem, the results still hold. Mechanism analysis shows that digital inclusive finance can reduce urban carbon emission intensity by promoting green and low-carbon travel modes of public transport and the use of clean energy. Compared with other regions, the effect of digital inclusive finance in reducing urban carbon emission intensity is more significant in the western region and in cities with low economic development. Against the background of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, we find that accelerating the development of digital inclusive finance can effectively promote the green and low-carbon transition of cities.

Keywords: digital inclusive finance; carbon emission intensity; green and low-carbon travel; clean energy; green and low-carbon transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/16/12623/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/16/12623/ (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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:16:p:12623-:d:1221413

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().