The impact of urban digital transformation on resource sustainability: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Zhengyu Jiang, Xinyi Zhang, Yingzhi Zhao, Chengming Li and Zeyu Wang

Resources Policy, 2023, vol. 85, issue PA

Abstract: Currently, advancing digital economy and resource crisis occur simultaneously in several countries. Whether digital transformation can improve resource sustainability, particularly energy sustainability, is an urgent problem for governments. We used panel data from 230 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006-2019 to assess the impact of urban digital transformation strategies represented by smart cities on urban resource sustainability using the difference-in-difference (DID) model. The results show that urban digital transformation significantly enhances urban resource sustainability, which still holds after passing robustness tests. The mechanism analyses indicate that urban digital transformation can promote resource sustainability through technological innovation, structural transformation, and capital reallocation. Further analysis reveals that implementing urban digital transformation in eastern, non-resource-based cities and cities with unreasonable industrial structures has a more favourable effect on resource sustainability. This paper provides an empirical basis for the urban digital transformation to empower green urban recovery and low-carbon development by promoting sustainable resources.

Keywords: Digital transformation; Smart city; Resource sustainability; Resources; Green recovery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O18 O33 P28 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420723004956
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:jrpoli:v:85:y:2023:i:pa:s0301420723004956

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.103784

Access Statistics for this article

Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert

More articles in Resources Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().