Analysis of the Impact of Internet Development on Environmental Pollution

Xu Liu ()
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Xu Liu: Henan University of Economics and Law Zhengzhou, College of Mathematics and Information Science

A chapter in Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Economics, Smart Finance and Contemporary Trade (ESFCT 2022), 2022, pp 663-681 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract With the rapid progress of the Internet, tremendous changes have occurred in enterprises and living standards. However, we are looking forward to the answer about whether internet progress has a prominent inhibiting effect on the discharge of environmental pollutants. Based on 2009–2019 panel data from 295 cities in China, the paper has empirically tested the influence of internet progress on urban pollutant discharge and mediating mechanisms through the fixed-effect model and mediating effect model. Research indicated that internet progress has significantly helped lower urban pollution emissions. This conclusion is valid after soundly testing by replacing core explanatory variables and resolving endogenous problems in fixed provinces. Research pointed out that internet progress plays a different role in restraining the emission of different contaminants. It ranks first in inhibiting the emission of industrial smoke dust and second for industrial sulfur dioxide and wastewater. Analysis result of mediating effect showed that industrial structure supererogation is an essential mechanism that internet progress has reduced the environmental contaminants in cities. Nevertheless, as the development of green innovation does not play a positive role in the contribution of progress on the Internet to bring down pollutants, it has lowered the effectiveness of progress on the Internet on the urban environmental pollutants. Analysis of spatial heterogeneity showed that middle-China cities with a high level of internet progress enjoy a more significant emission reduction effect than cities in the east and west of China. The paper has enriched the relevant research on internet progress and fully supplemented the influencing factors of environmental pollutants. At the same time, the research conclusion has provided reliable empirical evidence for progress in the Internet enhancing the capability of ecological pollution improvement and offered some references related to an emission reduction of environmental pollutants.

Keywords: Internet; environmental pollution; mediation effect; masking effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6463-052-7_77

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