Digital Economy, Technological Innovation, and Environmental Quality Improvement

Shiming Yang () and Jianlin Jia ()
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Shiming Yang: School of Economics and Management, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832000, China
Jianlin Jia: School of Finance and Economics, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou 510665, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-15

Abstract: Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2013 to 2020, this paper makes an empirical study on the influence of digital economy development on regional environmental quality by using the fixed effect model and mediating effect model. The results show that the development of a digital economy can effectively reduce environmental pollution and improve environmental quality. Secondly, a mechanism analysis shows that a digital economy can promote technological innovation and improve environmental quality; that is, there is a mediating effect when the total number of patents and utility model patents is a proxy variable of technological innovation, and there is no mediating effect when invention patents and design patents are proxy variables. Finally, through further analysis of regional differences, it is found that the development of the digital economy has obvious regional heterogeneity characteristics to the improvement of environmental quality, and the central and western regions are higher than the eastern regions. These conclusions provide new policy directions and inspiration for improving the regional environment, improving people’s quality of life, and promoting high-quality economic development.

Keywords: digital economy; technological innovation; environmental quality; mediating effect; regional heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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