The Impact of Information Infrastructure on Air Pollution: Empirical Evidence from China

Pei Zhang, Peiran Chen (), Fan Xiao, Yong Sun, Shuyan Ma and Ziwei Zhao
Additional contact information
Pei Zhang: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Peiran Chen: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Fan Xiao: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Yong Sun: School of Public Administration, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Shuyan Ma: School of Public Policy and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Ziwei Zhao: School of Public Policy and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: Information infrastructure construction has become an essential support for the new global technological revolution and industrial change. To examine whether information infrastructure can mitigate the level of air pollution, this paper measures the development level of information infrastructure in each region using the entropy-TOPSIS method based on the data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2013 to 2020. On this basis, it explores the impact of information infrastructure on atmospheric pollution and its mechanism using spatial measures and mediating effects. The results show that: (1) Information infrastructure can effectively improve air quality, though its spatial spillover effect is not obvious. (2) In addition to directly reducing air pollution, information infrastructure can also improve air quality by influencing industrial structure upgrading, or by influencing technological innovation first and then industrial structure upgrading. By exploring the impact of information infrastructure on air pollution and its action path, this paper expects to provide some scientific reference value for the construction of information infrastructure under the background of the new global technological revolution.

Keywords: information infrastructure; air pollution; industrial structure upgrading; technology innovation; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14351/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14351/ (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:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14351-:d:961378

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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