The Impact Of Digital Economy Development On Urban Green Innovation

"Digitalization" and "greening" are important directions for China’s future economic development.The digital economy,with its unique advantages,has brought subversive changes to the development of China’s traditional industries and enhanced the innovation and productivity of the real economy.At the same time,it has also created several emerging industries,inspired some new business models,and created new growth points for China’s economic development.The strong desire and appeal of environmental protection have also made green development an economic growth model that China attaches great importance to at this stage.The green technology innovation that can achieve a balance between economic growth and environmental protection has gradually attracted great attention from the government and academia.In the context of the dual economic development of "digitalization" and "greening",this thesis attempts to study whether the digital economy can promote green development and achieve high-quality economic growth in China.This study uses the panel data of 278 cities above the prefecture-level in China from2011 to 2018 as a sample to evaluate the impact of the development of the digital economy in each city on the level of urban green innovation.First,based on theoretical analysis,this thesis uses a two-way fixed-effect model,a quantile regression model,and a threshold model to verify the average and marginal impact of digital economic development on the level of urban green innovation.A series of endogenous estimates and robustness tests are also used to mitigate possible endogenous issues.Secondly,the mediation effect model is used to test the channels through which digital economy development affects urban green innovation.Finally,in the further expansion of the analysis,on the one hand,the interaction term is used to analyze the possible role of environmental regulation in the impact of the digital economy on urban green innovation.On the other hand,the impact of the digital economy on green innovation was investigated from the micro and macro levels by using the samples of listed companies and the "Broadband China" quasi-natural experiment.The research results show that the digital economy promotes urban green innovation,and the lagged variable method,instrumental variable method,and multiple robustness tests also ensure the reliability of the results.The regression of quantile and threshold effects found that under different levels of green innovation,the development of the digital economy can significantly improve the level of urban green innovation,and its positive impact has the characteristics of economies of scale.Channel analysis verifies that urban entrepreneurial activity,investment agglomeration and human capital improvement are important channels through which digital economy development affects urban green innovation.In further analysis,environmental regulation weakens the green innovation effect,and the green innovation effect of digital economy is significantly higher in the east than in the central and western regions.Extensive research has found that the digital economy has effectively promoted the improvement of the green innovation level of enterprises and cities from both micro and macro aspects.Therefore,this thesis proposes the following four recommendations: First,increase government finance and encourage social capital to participate,increase support for digital infrastructure and digital technology,and give full play to the enabling effect of the digital economy in promoting green technology innovation activities.The second is to continuously stimulate and rationally guide entrepreneurial behavior,urban investment agglomeration,and human capital accumulation,to improve the transmission path for the digital economy to promote urban green innovation,and to expand the positive role of digital economic development in urban green innovation.Third,formulate more flexible environmental regulation policies to stimulate their positive effects in the impact of the digital economy on urban green innovation.Fourth,implement regionally differentiated digital economy development strategies to boost the development of the digital economy in the central and western regions.Fifth,use intermediate channels to promote the deep integration of the digital economy and urban innovation.