New Digital Infrastructure’s Impact on Agricultural Eco-Efficiency Improvement: Influence Mechanism and Empirical Test—Evidence from China

Jin Ren (), Xinrui Chen, Tingting Gao, Hao Chen, Lefeng Shi and Ming Shi
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Jin Ren: School of Economics and Management, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Xinrui Chen: School of Economics and Management, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Tingting Gao: School of Economics and Management, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Hao Chen: School of Economics and Management, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
Lefeng Shi: National Center for Applied Mathematics in Chongqing, Chongqing 401331, China
Ming Shi: School of Economics and Management, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China

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

Abstract: This paper attempts to explore the overall impact of its rural digitization process on agricultural carbon emissions and non-point source pollution in the context of China. By doing so, we analyze whether digitization has an impact on agricultural pollution reduction, analyze its conductive mechanism, and draw its policy implications. To this end, the paper innovatively incorporates new digital infrastructure and urbanization level into of the concept of agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) and adopts the SBM-DEA model, entropy weighting method, and mixed regression to analyze, based on the sample data of the 30 provinces of China from 2011 to 2020. The results indicate that: (1) new digital infrastructure has a significant contribution to the improvement of AEE of China; (2) both information infrastructure and integration infrastructure have a significant positive effect on AEE, and the effect of information infrastructure is more effective, but there is an inverted “U”-shaped relationship between innovation infrastructure and AEE level; (3) the moderating effect mechanism suggests that the level of urbanization reinforces the contribution of new digital infrastructure to AEE; and (4) the heterogeneity test shows that the effect of new digital infrastructure on AEE is more significant in regions with well-developed traditional transportation facilities and in periods when the government pays more attention to agricultural ecological issues. The above results also provide rich insights for China and other similar developing countries on how to balance the agriculture digitization and AEE.

Keywords: new digital infrastructure; agricultural eco-efficiency; innovation infrastructure; urbanization level (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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