Research On The Mechanisms And Effects Of Digital Economy On The Green Total Factor Efficiency Of China

Currently,China is facing a comprehensive impact of diminishing marginal returns on investment,gradual disappearance of population dividends,and obstacles to traditional innovation paths.In recent years,the digital economy has developed rapidly in China,becoming a commanding point for high-quality economic development and seizing new international competition patterns,as well as an important lever to break through existing development bottlenecks.At the same time,pollution emissions and resource consumption have increasingly become the primary constraints of China’s economic growth.Whether actively promoting the development of the digital economy can serve as an important driving force for achieving highquality development in China needs further research and analysis.Firstly,this article constructs a digital economy development index and analyzes whether digital economy development can serve as an important driving force for China to achieve high-quality development by studying the impact and mechanism of digital economy development on green total factor productivity.The measurement of green total factor productivity based on common frontiers(GMLPI)in various provinces and cities adopts the Malmquist-Luenberger Index based on the global directional distance function of SBM,and further decomposes it into two parts:technology change(GMLTC)and efficiency change(GMLEC).At the same time,based on the division of the south and north,as well as the division of the east,middle,west,and northeast regions,the intra group technological efficiency(TE),intra group technological progress rate(BPC),and inter group technological progress rate(TGR)were calculated and grouped.Then,after analyzing the impact and mechanism of digital economy development on green total factor productivity at the theoretical level,further verification is conducted through empirical research.Research has found that the development of the digital economy has an impact on the improvement of GTFP,mainly due to the increase in the progress rate of green technology,rather than from the improvement in efficiency.This may be due to the impact of the "three reductions,one reduction,and one subsidy" policy proposed by the Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 2015 on production capacity and efficiency.Using regional heterogeneity regression analysis,dynamic panel regression analysis,and instrumental variable regression analysis,the results were equally robust.In the analysis of the use of mediation effect testing methods,it was found that the development of the digital economy can have an impact on the improvement of GTFP by improving the level of marketization,optimizing industrial structure,increasing carbon productivity,reducing energy intensity,and increasing urbanization rate.However,the mechanism of alleviating resource mismatch did not pass the mediation effect test.This may be due to the fact that alleviating factor mismatch is mainly to improve the efficiency of resource allocation,while the increase in GTFP in various regions is mainly driven by the progress of green technology,rather than from the improvement of efficiency.Therefore,although the development of the digital economy can alleviate resource mismatch,it has not played a promoting role in improving GTFP.At the same time,based on theoretical analysis of whether the development of the digital economy has a threshold effect and spatial effect on GTFP,using panel threshold model and spatial panel model,it was found that the development of digital economy has a double threshold effect on the improvement of green total factor productivity based on labor quality and digital infrastructure,and there is also a spatial spillover effect on the improvement of green total factor productivity caused by the development of digital economy.Finally,based on the theoretical analysis and hypothesis testing in this article,policy recommendations are proposed.Firstly,to promote the improvement of resource utilization and allocation efficiency in the digital economy,and further improve GTFP;The second is to increase basic research centered on digital technology,accelerate the application and transformation of digital technology,and add technological impetus to improve GTFP;Thirdly,accelerate the construction of institutional mechanisms that contribute to the development of the digital economy;Fourthly,we need to accelerate the advanced construction of digital infrastructure;The fifth is to fully utilize the impact of digital economy development on the spatial effect of GTFP,promote areas with good digital economy development to drive underdeveloped areas,and promote the coordinated development of upstream and downstream enterprises and the integration and development of large and small enterprises.The research contribution of this article mainly lies in: firstly,proposing an analytical framework that the development of digital economy can promote the progress of green technology and efficiency improvement,thereby affecting the improvement of green total factor productivity;Secondly,from the perspectives of green technology progress and efficiency improvement,a mechanism analysis framework is proposed for the impact of digital economy development on green total factor productivity by alleviating resource mismatch,enhancing marketization level,optimizing industrial structure,improving carbon productivity,reducing energy intensity,and increasing urbanization rate;The third is to propose an analytical framework for the impact of digital economy development on green total factor productivity by influencing the inter group and intra group green technology progress rates among different regions in China.