Digital economy agglomeration and energy efficiency gain: evidence from China

Cheng Zhao, Jing Su and Bingbing Zhang

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2025, vol. 68, issue 10, 2348-2372

Abstract: This study develops a stylized theoretical model to analyze how digital economy agglomeration affects energy efficiency. Then, we employ a two-way fixed effect model to identify the impact of digital economy agglomeration on energy efficiency. We find that a higher degree of digital economy agglomeration significantly increases a city’s energy efficiency. This result is robust when we address endogeneity concerns by exploiting a policy shock, geographic distance, and historical variation as instruments. We explore several explanations, including advancements in green technology, upgrading of industrial structures, and enhancements in public and governmental environmental concerns. Our findings provide evidence that substantiates each of these mechanisms. Our heterogeneous analysis indicates that the impact of digital economy agglomeration on energy efficiency is only significant in cities with higher attention to digitization, stricter environmental regulations, greater energy consumption, and better industrial development. This study provides the first city-level evidence of the relationship between digital economy agglomeration and energy efficiency, which has important implications for the energy transition in developing countries.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2024.2313185 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:jenpmg:v:68:y:2025:i:10:p:2348-2372

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CJEP20

DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2024.2313185

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management is currently edited by Dr Neil Powe, Dr Ken Willis and George Bill Page

More articles in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().