The Effect of Input Digitalization on Carbon Emission Intensity: An Empirical Analysis Based on China’s Manufacturing

Luyang Tang, Bangke Lu () and Tianhai Tian
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Luyang Tang: School of Business Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Bangke Lu: School of Statistics and Mathematics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Tianhai Tian: School of Mathematics, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Digitalization is an excellent opportunity for the manufacturing industry all over the world to improve the core competitiveness and break through the “low-end locking” dilemma. However, it is not clear whether the digitalization of the manufacturing industry has positive ecological and environmental benefits under the resource and environmental constraints. To answer this question, we use the data from the world input–output database (WIOD) to investigate the impact of manufacturing input digitalization on carbon emission intensity by an extended analysis. The results show that the input digitalization of the manufacturing industry has mixed effects on reducing carbon emission intensity. The productive input digitalization can reduce carbon emission intensity, but the distributional input digitalization may increase carbon emission intensity. Non-pollution-intensive manufacturing and high-input digital manufacturing have stronger carbon emission reduction effects than the other industry sectors. From the perspective of input sources, input digitalization from domestic sources has a significant inhibitory effect on the carbon emission intensity. In contrast, input digitalization from foreign sources may increase carbon emission intensity.

Keywords: input digitalization; carbon emission intensity; environmental benefit; manufacturing industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (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)

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