Does China’s Regional Digital Economy Promote the Development of a Green Economy?

Weiwei Zhang, Shengqiang Zhang (), Lan Bo (), Mahfuzul Haque and Enru Liu
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Weiwei Zhang: Sunwah International Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Shengqiang Zhang: Sunwah International Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Lan Bo: Sunwah International Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
Mahfuzul Haque: Department of AFIRM Scott College of Business, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN 47809, USA
Enru Liu: Sunwah International Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: As countries worldwide are pursuing green development, assessing whether the digital economy as a new economic engine can help us achieve new breakthroughs is of great research value. China, being the largest resource consumer in the world but with a rapidly developing digital economy, can offer us a special view on this question. Using China’s provincial panel data from 2010 to 2020, this study comprehensively measures the development of the digital economy from four dimensions and empirically examines the impact of digital economy development on the green economy based on the super efficiency SBM-GML model. The results show that: first, digital economy development has a significant positive effect on promoting a green economy; second, there are regional differences in both the digital economy and the green economy in China, with the development in the southern region better than that in the northern region; third, the environmental regulation has a double-threshold effect on the relationship that we assessed. The findings in this study highlight the importance of digital economic development in driving the growth of the real economy and are of value to the development of a green economy in the new period.

Keywords: digital economy; green economy; green total factor productivity; threshold effect (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 (2)

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