The Mediating and Moderating Effects of the Digital Economy on PM 2.5: Evidence from China

Xiaoli Wu, Yaoyao Qin (), Qizhuo Xie and Yunyi Zhang
Additional contact information
Xiaoli Wu: The Business School, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, China
Yaoyao Qin: School of Economics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Qizhuo Xie: School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai 200082, China
Yunyi Zhang: Cornell Institute of Public Affairs, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-17

Abstract: Environmental issues are fundamentally problems of development mode and life style. Meanwhile, the digital economy is an important means of optimizing the economic structure and achieving high-quality economic development, thereby changing the way of production and life, which can improve the aforementioned environmental challenges. Therefore, this research investigates how the digital economy can bring new ideas for reducing pollution in depth. Based on panel data from 285 prefecture-level cities in China, this paper examines the impact of the digital economy on PM 2.5 . We construct the evaluation system of China’s digital economy development from the three aspects of digital penetration, digital human resources, and digital output. We use the digital economy comprehensive index with digital financial inclusion index as the main component to test the robustness. The results show that the increase of the digital economy reduces PM 2.5 emissions in Chinese cities. In addition, we also explore technological innovation as a mediating channel for the digital economy to influence PM 2.5 emissions. The digital economy provides a better research environment for technological innovation, conducive to improving cleaner production technology and products. Finally, we find that environmental information disclosure can enhance the impact of the digital economy on PM 2.5 emissions.

Keywords: digital economy; PM 2.5 emission; mediation; moderation; technological innovation; environmental information disclosure (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 (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/16032/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/16032/ (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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:16032-:d:989770

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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