The nexus between e-commence and environmental pollution: The roles of resource consumption and energy efficiency

Wentao Yu, Yanrui Wu, Xiaolan Tan and Xiumei Guo
Additional contact information
Wentao Yu: School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University and Business School, University of Western Australia, http://www.web.uwa.edu.au/person/wentao.yu
Yanrui Wu: Business School, The University of Western Australia, http://www.web.uwa.edu.au/person/yanrui.wu
Xiaolan Tan: School of Public Administration, Hohai University and School of Marxism, Fuzhou University
Xiumei Guo: School of Economics and Management, Fuzhou University

No 23-11, Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics

Abstract: The platform economy is growing fast in the world. Its expansion, exemplified by industry giants like Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber, is reshaping societal lifestyles and commercial business. However, its environmental impacts are uncertain. Currently, the relationship between e-commerce activities and environmental pollution has attracted a lot of attention. This paper attempts to construct a comprehensive theoretical model to investigate the nexus between e-commerce and regional environmental pollution, with a particular focus on the effects of air pollution and waste pollution. Fixed effect models and China’s provincial data during the period from 2008 to 2018 are employed to examine the roles of resource consumption and energy efficiency in such a nexus. The findings suggest that the development of e-commerce is linked to a reduction in regional air pollution through the channel of improving transportation energy efficiency. The results also show that e-commerce is associated with an increase in regional waste pollution due to the mechanism of resource consumption in the express packaging industry. As a result, the relationship between e-commerce and environmental pollution is quite complex at the regional level, transcending a binary distinction of solely positive or negative impacts. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the complex environmental impacts of e-commerce and helps governments design more efficient and targeted policies to reduce regional pollution.

Keywords: e-commerce strategy; environmental pollution; energy efficiency; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-res
Note: MD5 = 04f9b0107ee616880b15c762e0c8c7cd
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ecompapers.biz.uwa.edu.au/paper/PDF%20of%2 ... 0Tan%20and%20Guo.pdf (application/pdf)

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:uwa:wpaper:23-11

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sam Tang (repec-sbus@uwa.edu.au).